


Part I: Enigma

by Aviditas04



Series: The Alexander Chronicles Book I: Greece [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Book 1: The Lightning Thief, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-01
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-02-09 01:27:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 24,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12877251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aviditas04/pseuds/Aviditas04
Summary: A few days before Percy arrives at Camp Half-Blood, a friend of his arrives, but Alex Summers is no ordinary demigod. He doesn't fit in well at CHB, has an unusual, dangerous lineage, strange abilities, a stubborn loyalty unknown at Camp, and an extreme case of recklessness. How will he affect the fates of those around him, especially Percy Jackson?





	1. Prologue: The Pact

_A half-blood of the eldest gods_   
_shall reach sixteen against all odds_   
_And see the world in endless sleep_   
_The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap_   
_A single choice shall end his days_   
_Olympus to preserve or raze_   
_Great Prophecy, Oracle of Delphi-c.1935 and Cumean Sibyl-c. 520 BC_

_Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity. And so we ask ourselves: will our actions echo across the centuries? Will strangers hear our names long after we're gone and wonder who we were, how bravely we fought, how fiercely we loved?_

**New York, Winter Solstice, 1935**

On the top floor of the Empire State Building, a meeting between the 13 most powerful beings is taking place. It is one that they hope will preserve Western Civilization for decades if not centuries to come. "Now to our last piece of business, what do we do about the prophecy? This is our second warning, and we all know the Oracle only warns us before the events are set to begin.” The handsome, black-haired man with a salt-and-pepper beard at the head of the table was obviously the leader of the thirteen.  
  
"The wisest course would be to kill those that are under 16, and the three of you swear never to have any relations with mortals again, Father." The woman who spoke was a dark-haired, grey-eyed woman who valued wisdom in all things.  
  
"NO! I refuse to give up my children!" The pale-faced man at the far end of the table was furious at the woman's suggestion.  
  
"Peace, brother. I would not have us act like barbarians. You could just have them sent to the camps, where we could guard them until their 16th year." The pale man just grumbled in response.  
  
"And what of my second suggestion, father? Your mortal children cause us nothing but trouble, as this new European War will prove. You must abstain from mortals until we can eliminate this threat."  
  
"Ah, but Athena! That would rob me of so much business!" At that, the woman glared across the table at man who spoke. It was clear, she despised him, and their rivalry stretched back to their youth.  
  
"Well, I approve completely." The woman had long chocolate brown hair woven into a braid with gold ribbons and sat at the head of the table, next to the bearded man.  
  
"Well of course you would, you hate the idea of affairs! Besides, not allowing them to have children would hurt my business as well!" This woman could only be described as the definition of beautiful.  
  
"Oh, please. Let's just get this over with and vote." This man had sea-green eyes and a neatly trimmed black beard and a fishing pole by his chair. Of course he would push for a vote, he had no children that the vote would affect.  
  
"Any objections? No? Then let's vote." The vote ended with five against and eight for. "My daughter's suggestion has passed, we three shall avoid all relations with mortals and your children shall be brought to the camps within a week."  
  
"What, send them to places where they're not welcome? NO! I will take care of them." And with that, the pale man stormed out of the room. Five months later, the pale man's lover had died and their children had disappeared, while a third child had simply disappeared.  
  
In 1988, the leader of the thirteen had a daughter, against the Pact of 1935, and 14 years later, she was killed just outside of the special camp for people like her.  
Then, in 1994, the leader of the thirteen had a vision of the future and sired a son in May of 1995 and a second son in August of 1995. The fisherman, without any promptings from fate, sired another hero, also in August of 1995. Those acts would have repercussions for the next two decades and save the world several times over.


	2. The Myths Are No Myths

My name is Alexander Julius Summers, or Alex to my friends. I'm twelve years old, and until a few months ago I was a student at Yancey Academy. My only two friends there were Percy Jackson, a friend I’d had since I was a baby, and our newest friend, Grover Underwood. One fateful field trip to the Metropolitan Museum, our lives turned upside down. Despite being an eternal optimist, I had a bad feeling about this field trip. See, while Percy just had bad luck on field trips, I was a curse on teachers that went with me. On the Saratoga trip, while Percy was blowing up school buses, I was blowing teachers' ears off. No, I don't mean I was talking too much. We were allowed to handle replicas of the muskets that were used at the battle, and how was I to know some were loaded and on a hair trigger? Of course, I was booted out of that school. Last I'd heard, the teacher was in a local psych ward, recovering from a "near-death experience." My fourth grade teacher is still in a coma because I accidentally hit him with a large model of Jupiter during a trip to a planetarium. In fact, if you go through my school history, you'd notice that within a week of a field trip, I'm booted out and a teacher is either in a hospital or the psych ward.

At the time, the three of us (Percy, Grover and I) were the closest of friends, and I was the main protector of the group. Although I wasn't much bigger than Percy, I was easily the best fighter among us. Not to brag, but I'd taken on high schoolers and won. And that wasn’t because I was stronger, oh no, I used strategy to beat them.

We had two chaperones on the trip: Mr Brunner and Mrs Dodds. Brunner was a fun teacher that taught Latin and mythology. He was a cripple using a motorized wheelchair, but he was the only one who made our classes fun, usually by making the lessons into games or using a bronze sword in class. Mrs Dodds on the other hand, well, she was the definition of a demon math teacher. She was a little lady about fifty years old, but looked like she’d fit right in among the biker gangs. She even dressed the part with a leather jacket labelled ‘Hell’s Angel’ (though she treated Percy and myself as devil spawn)! Brunner on the other hand, always treated Percy, and to a lesser extent me, like we were his favourite students, while Dodds believed us to be the worst troublemakers in the school. Brunner had been around since the second week of our time at Yancey, while Dodds had shown up around Christmas after our last math teacher suffered a nervous breakdown. (And no, it wasn’t me! I blame Percy for that one!)

Anyway, getting back to the field trip. Mr Brunner had led us into the Greco-Roman wing and was lecturing "There are twelve Olympian gods. The Big Three are the brothers Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. They gained their power . . . how? Percy?"

“By overthrowing their father . . . Kronos, right? The king . . . god? Wait, no, he was a Titan. He’d swallowed his oldest children, but his wife . . . Rhea? gave him a rock to swallow instead of Zeus. When he grew up, he made Kronos barf up his brothers and sisters, and there was a war between the gods and the Titans, and the gods won.”

“Correct. After that war, later known as the Titanomachy, the gods chopped Kronos into little pieces. Then they divided up the world: Zeus became King of the gods and ruled the skies, Poseidon ruled the seas, and the disreputable Hades was banished to the Underworld. The three gods have been rivals ever since, always arguing, always threatening war.” As one of the girls asked a question, Grover hobbled off and started taking pictures of the statue of Venus. Eventually Mr B spotted him and told him off, saying “Grover, please, show some respect for the gods.” He then took a look at the pictures Grover had taken, and showed them to the class. "What does this tell us about Grover?"

"That he's a perv?" one of the girls asked, and I have to say, it was a legitimate conclusion. Especially when you consider the fact that the statue he'd been taking pictures of had no top on.

"Possibly. Grover may be a tad hormonal, though we all share this weakness: lust." As he pocketed the phone, Nancy Bobofit, the school bully, asked what the point was to learn all this. "Well now, that is actually a good question, does anyone have an answer? Percy?"

Percy thought about it, but he eventually said "I'm sorry, but I don't know."

"Excuse me, Mr. Brunner, but I think I have an answer."\

"Please, enlighten us Alex."

"Well, Saturn, the Roman name for Kronos, is a symbol of chaos, since that's what his reign was like, men were still living in caves at the time, living at a subsistence level. On the other hand, the Olympians are a symbol of Civilization, with them in charge, man learned to make fire, built cities and ships, and even created art. The battle between Saturn and the Olympians is the battle between the forces of chaos and Civilization, only one can rule at a time. Besides, if we don't study history, we are doomed to repeat it, both figuratively and literally."

Everyone laughed at that last part, including Mr B. "Very good Alex. Very good indeed, extra credit for such a unique answer." However, he didn't seem very surprised at the answer. He always expected the best from me and Percy, even though he knew that we both suffered from ADHD and Percy from dyslexia.

Overhead, a huge, angry storm was hitting New York. I'd always loved storms, sometimes it was the only thing that could calm me down. I know, weird. Only these storms were very unusual, there was only one way to describe them. "Jupiter and Neptune are angry."

"Huh? What did you say?" Grover was shocked, to say the least.

"These storms, it's like the sky and the sea are fighting, or as the Romans would put it, Jupiter and Neptune are mad at each other." I don’t know why, but I’ve always felt more comfortable using the Latin forms over the Greek. It looked like Grover was about to reply when Nancy Bobofit dumped half her lunch on his lap. That's when it happened. Just as Nancy was about to start laughing at Grover, water from the pool grabbed her and pulled her into it. Of course, Ms. Dodds noticed what happened, and called Percy, insisting he come with her. I jumped up and said "I pushed her in, Ms Dodds." To my surprise, so Grover made the same claim. Not surprisingly, she didn't believe us and insisted we stay put. So of course I decided to follow them. Looking back, I'm not sure that was the wisest course of action.

She lead Percy back to the Greco-Roman gallery, where she attempted to get Percy to confess to a vague something he had done. Percy didn't know what she was talking about, and after he said so, Strange Event 2 happened. Ms. Dodds started changing into something inhuman, a monster, one that I recognized. No way, I thought, a Fury! Then, Mr. B threw Percy a pen, Mr. B, he's fighting a monster, not taking a test!, but when it landed in Percy's hand, it changed into a sword, the same sword that Brunner would bring to class at times! I could tell that she was moving too fast for Percy to slice at . . . it, and I was desperate to protect my best and oldest friend. To my surprise, something in my innermost being tugged, and the Fury was slowed just long enough for Percy to slice into her. Instead of falling to the ground, she burst into dust, and a green mist burst from her, speeding out almost faster than I could see.

I ran outside in shock, and ran into Bobofit. She got after me and said, "I'm going to tell Mrs. Kerr on you!"

"Who?" I had no idea who she was talking about. I'd never even heard of a Mrs. Kerr before.

"Our teacher, duh. I swear, you are one of the stupidest people on earth!" I turned to Grover and asked who Mrs. Kerr was, and he claimed that she was our math teacher. But I could have sworn that he hesitated when he answered. Percy came out soon after, and he looked confused. He asked Grover about Mrs. Dodds, and again he hesitated before answering, saying he didn't know who she was. He then returned Mr. B's "pen" to him and came back, looking even more confused.

I felt sorry for him and decided to help him, so I pulled him aside. When we were out of earshot, I told him "I saw what happened to Mrs. Dodds."

"So you do remember her?"

"Of course I remember her. How could I forget a teacher that turned into a Fury in front of my eyes?"

"What did you call her?"

"A Fury, you know, Pluto's torturers. Come on Percy, you've got to recognize that name. I think Mr. B would be upset with you if you didn't." We continued discussing what happened, and realized we saw exactly the same thing, (except he never noticed the mist.) “So, Percy, what do you want to do?”

“Something strange is going on, Alex, and somehow Grover and Brunner know what it is. We’re going to have to figure out some way to get them to tell us what they know, and how it concerns us.”

* * *

 

Over the next few months, Percy and I would drop a reference to Ms. Dodds, but apparently the green mist had completely destroyed or changed any memory of her from everyone but us. Everyone believed that Mrs Kerr, a perky blonde had been our math teacher since about Christmas. The unusual storms got worse and more common as the school year wound down, and with it, our tempers got worse, so much so that we even fought each other (something that had never happened before,) and our grades slipped so much that I got my first F. (There was something odd about the storms though. The sky was full of thunderclouds, and we heard plenty of it, but there was no lightning in them. Weird, huh?) The straw that broke the camel's back of our stay at Yancey was when Mr. Nicoll asked why Percy never studied for his spelling tests. I stood up in class and said, "Study, Mr. Nicoll? Why should he study spelling when Percy has dyslexia? He’s always lucky to get a score over 25%, so why bother when he has better things to do?" I'm surprised that I wasn't booted out immediately after that.

By the night before the exams, the only test I was studying for was Latin, not that I needed to. Percy felt the same, but was willing to go the extra mile to pass and left to ask Mr. Brunner for help, but when he came back, he was clearly in shock. When I asked what was wrong, he said that he had overheard Grover and Mr. B talking about us. When I insisted that he tell me what he heard, he was actually able to remember it word for word. (A/N: The italics portion is told by Percy)

_". . . alone this summer. I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too-"_

_"We would only make things worse by rushing him. We need the boy to mature more."_

_"But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline-"_

_"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he can."_

_"Sir, he saw her . . ."_

_"His imagination. The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."_

_"I don't know about that sir. Alex can see through the Mist, and I'm convinced he's talked to Percy about her."_

_"Summers? That could be troublesome, but hopefully not enough to endanger him."_

_"Sir, I . . . I can't fail in my duties again. You know what that would mean."_

_"You haven't failed, Grover. I should have recognizer her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive till next fall-" When I heard that, I dropped my textbook, pretty loudly too._ _"Nothing. My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."_

_"Mine neither. But I could have sworn-"_

_"Go back to the dorm. You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."_

_"But what about Alex? I think he may be one too."_

_"You never said anything before. Why now?"_

_"His scent is finally breaking through the stench of the guy his mom is with now, and Percy‘s. His step-father’s scent is even stronger than Mr. Ugliano."_

_"Really? I can't believe that anyone could smell more human than him, or that a half-blood would need that much protection. But just in case, keep an eye on Alex, we need as many campers as we can get."_

_"Yes, sir."_

"Are you sure that they called Ms. Dodds, a Kindly One?"

"Yeah, why? What's that got to do with anything?"

"Because that's what the Greeks called the Furies, Percy, Erinyes, literally translated as Kindly Ones. But how do they know about them, and why were they talking about us?" Ah, how I loved my Dictionary of Classical Mythology! If that wasn’t going to get me to pass the Greek part of test, nothing could.

* * *

 

Unfortunately we didn't have time to ask Grover about the Fury, and the only time we saw Mr. B after that was at the test (which I finished in half an hour.) Fortunately, Grover took the same bus to New York as we did. About halfway there, Percy finally got up the courage to ask, "Looking for Kindly Ones?" When Grover asked what he meant, Percy confessed to eavesdropping.

"How much did you overhear?"

"Oh . . . not much. What's the summer solstice deadline?"

Grover was clearly upset that Percy had heard that but said nothing about it. "Look, Percy . . . I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers. . ."

"Hallucinating? Grover! I saw her too!"

"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you two were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Ms. Dodds. . ."

"Grover, you're the worst liar ever," I told him. Grover then handed us a business card for Camp Half-Blood (on which he was described as a Keeper, whatever that was,) and told us to call him if we needed him because he ‘needed to protect us.’ Yeah right! If anyone was going to be protecting anybody, it wasn’t going to be ladies-man, cowardly Grover. Percy was a little more curious. “Grover, what exactly are you supposed to be protecting us from?” he asked. Then, without any warning, we pulled off to the side of the highway while the driver did some engine work. On the other side of the highway were three ancient ladies knitting giant socks, not something you see everyday. But when Grover saw them, he turned so pale, it was like the colour had been bleached out of him. "Grover? Hey man. . ."

"Tell me they're not looking at you two. They are, aren't they?"

"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit us?"

"Uh, Percy, I don't think that's why they were staring at us, is it Grover?"

"We're getting on the bus. Come on."

"What? It's a thousand degrees in there."

I suspected that they were something special about them too, the way that Mrs Dodds had actually been a Fury, so I didn't argue with Grover, even if it was an oven in the bus. And when one of the ladies snipped the yarn so loudly we could hear it across four lanes of highway, I knew. "Sic Volvere Parcas," I said as soon as we were on our way again.

"Huh? What did you say?" Percy asked.

"Sic Volvere Parcas. Weren't you listening at all during Mr. B's class?"

"Yeah, but I don't remember that phrase. What is it?"

"So spin the Fates. That's who the ladies were, right Grover? Or do you prefer to call them by their Greek name, Moirae?" Unfortunately, Grover nearly fainted at that and refused to say another word. He was looking at us like he was preparing to bury us within days. Looking back, he was right in a way.


	3. Night and Day

I stayed on the bus until Metropolitan Avenue in Queens, in between two cemeteries. I wasn't even off the bus five minutes before I was plucked off the road and into the air by, wouldn't you know it, a Fury. "Alright, who are you?" I asked.

"I'm an Erinyes, as if you didn't know." Her voice could only be described as hideous.

"Clearly, but which one?"

"Megaera, servant of Hades. Now, where is it?" By now, she had carried me to Forest Park and dropped me in a tree.

"I don't know what you're talking about! What are you looking for, and what makes you think I have it?"

"Tisiphone, help him remember." It was only now that I noticed that I had attracted two of the Furies. I knew I was in trouble now. I started wondering where Alecto was, but then I realized that Alecto was probably the true name of Ms. Dodds. As time seemed to slow down around me, I realized that Tisiphone was flying at me, clearly bent on torturing me until I gave them the information they wanted. Taking the only sane option I had, I waited till the last second, and jumped onto Tisi and held on for dear life. I grabbed her by the ears, straddling her like a horse, and using her ears like reins, slammed her into Meg and then guided her to the Aqueduct Racetrack. When we hit, we hit hard, but we got up quickly; and when I noticed that her wing was hurt, I leaped back on her, and using a surge of strength I had never known I had, I snapped her neck. Seconds later, she burst into a cloud of sulfur, while Megaera flew off, probably to report back to Hades.

* * *

 

A word before you meet my mom and her current boyfriend. He is a drunk, junkie, chain-smoking gambler that can't even hold a day job. I never bothered to learn his name (like all his predecessors, and trust me, there were a lot of them,) and so I just called him The Mess. My mom on the other hand, is unique, even among the others like me. She's where I get my eternal optimism from, and once you hear her story you'll understand. Her parents were an Egyptian Coptic and a Methodist preacher's kid that were disowned when they were married, and then they disowned her when they found out that she was pregnant with me out of wedlock, when she was 19. Then she went through a succession of boyfriends after she gave birth to me, each one worse than the last, with one exception, Dr. Charles Egan, a famous archaeologist that specialized in Ancient Greece. The one time I thought she would get married, he ran off within 48 hours of proposing, leaving behind only a building model for me. That was seven years ago, and we haven't heard from him since. He was the only one that I liked, but it was soon after he left that Mom started dating men that she literally either picked up off the street or in a bar, eventually culminating in The Mess. Yet even then, she remained one of the nicest people you could meet, and as I said before, an eternal optimist.

When I arrived at my Forest Hills home, I was immediately grabbed by The Mess, clearly on at least one of his dozen or so drugs, not to mention drunk, and demanded that I fork over what money I had left from school so he could go and get more alcohol. I handed over what little money I had left as most of it fell out of my pocket fighting and riding Tisi and then ran for my room. I had just started to calm down from the events of the past few hours, when my mom came into the room. Unfortunately for me, mom was very observant and I hadn't been able to change clothes or hide the scent of sulfur, so she immediately knew something had happened. "Alex, what's going on? What's with the sulfur dust on your clothes?"

"It's nothing Mom."

"Alexander Julius Summers. Tell me what happened." I knew that when she used my full name, and in that tone, I had to answer. So, I told her everything, starting with Alecto's attack on Percy to Tisiphone's death. I could tell that the events of the past month had her freaked. "Alex. Get some stuff together, enough to last at least a month. We're going on a short trip."

"Mom, what's going on?"

"I'll tell you when we get there." I decided to take her at her word and packed, making sure to include the last two models Dr Egan gave me. I threw my bag into the car just as my mom started our car. Figuring it would be a few hours before we got to wherever we were going, I turned on my IPod and started listening to Into the Fire from Scarlet Pimpernel. Though it was one of my favourite songs, I fell asleep within the first minute.

* * *

_On the trip, I had a vivid dream. I was standing on the beach, where three men were fighting. They looked like brothers, dressed in the tunics of the Ancient Greeks. The first was dressed in a tunic the color of a storm cloud and wore a large crown. Oddly enough, I felt a strong connection to him, much like I felt with Percy when we first met. The second wore a tunic as blue as the sea and wore a smaller crown that looked like it was made of coral. The third man wore a tunic as black as coal, was as pale as death, and wore a crown that was the same size as the second man and was covered in gems. The first and third men were both demanding, "Give it back! Give it back!" As I looked around I noticed a man with a horned helmet and armed with a scythe standing in the shadows, applauding. The horned man spoke in a voice that was powerful, ancient, and dangerous. It said, "Yes, fight! Fight until only one is left standing! Fight, and I shall be the ultimate victor!" Then I noticed someone was standing in the shadows, at the base of the scythe. I could almost see him, when . . ._

I woke up to the sound of my mom saying, "Alex, it's time." I sat up, and nodded, letting her know that I was listening. "You know the Greek myths? Well, they're not myths. Every story actually happened. And the Olympians are real, and one of them is your father."

"What? What happened to our faith? What happened to believing in Adonai?" Mom had taught me the faith of her parents since the cradle, teaching me to believe in the God of Israel, and that Yeshua was the Messiah we had been looking forward to for four thousand years.

"Nothing has changed. Think of the Olympians like this: they are gods, but only in the way that Superman or Star Trek's Q are gods, they are nearly immortal, and have powers beyond those of mortal men. But they aren't even as powerful as angels. They are powerful beings, but also created beings, far from actual gods. They just control certain aspects of life. Now, your father is . . ." She would have continued, except for the fact that something landed on the hood of the car, driving us off the road. "Alex! Get out of the car now!" I jumped out as quickly as possible, only slowing to grab my bag.

I looked around and noticed two creatures nearby. The first was one that I wasn't surprised to see, Meg. But she had brought a friend that I recognized, but I knew that was not from any Greek myth, err, history. This monster had the body of a jaguar, the wings of a condor, and the head of a giant snake. "Alex!" I turned from the monster towards my mom. "Listen! You see the lone pine on the top of that hill?" She pointed towards a hill that had only one tree on it, a pine that could have passed for the giant Times Square Christmas tree. "Get to the top of the hill and you'll be safe!" I got ready to run when she grabbed my arm and said, "Alex, there is a reason I gave you the names I did. Remember that, it's all part of your heritage."

As I turned to run towards the hill, I saw the monster dive towards me. It just missed me, but instead of turning around for another pass, it pounced on my mom, and bit her, the 18-inch long fangs passing straight through her lungs. I screamed and charged for Meg, who was making her own pass at me. I grabbed her head and broke her neck as easily as I would a twig. I then jumped on the back of the monster, grabbed it by the fangs, and flew it towards the hill. As I was riding the beast, I felt a change occurring inside me. It wasn't the thrill of flight, or the sadness of my mother's death. It wasn't the change I knew happened in my eyes whenever I lost my temper, the change of colour from the blue that matched the sky so perfectly that you couldn't tell where the pupil ended and the white began- to the black of the worst storm cloud. No, it was the power that coursed through me as some small part of me realized who my father was, a power that demanded release. Without knowing how I did it, I grabbed the neck of the beast, and released the energy, which coursed through the beast, killing it.

It crashed into the ground just beyond the pine tree, and it slid down the hill all the way to the base, where a large group of people had gathered. Three stood out from the rest, two girls and one boy. The first girl was a beautiful blonde with grey eyes who appeared to be my age. The second girl was unattractive at best and mean looking and a couple of years older than me or the blonde, she actually reminded me a little of Nancy Bobofit. The boy was also unattractive and huge, and at least two years older than me. They were the last things I saw before I collapsed, exhausted from the release of energy that had killed the beast.

While I was unconscious, I heard a beautiful voice say, "Chiron, what do we do with him?" I knew it had to belong to the blonde.

"Take him to the Big House. We'll see what happens after that." I could have sworn that Mr. Brunner had said that.

"And what about his mom? We saw that thing kill her just outside the camp." Hmm, he sounds nice. Probably one of the 'gentle giants' at his school.

"Bury her by Thalia's Tree. As for the creature, put it near the kitchen. Hopefully Alex will be able to tell us what it is."

"Ahh, you mean we can't use it for target practice? And what do we do about the teeth he has?" Ugh, she sounds as mean as she looks. Probably the bullying type.

"Sorry, Clarisse. But the beast will not be used by Ares to slice to pieces, we need to study it. As for the teeth, Alex earned them the hard way. Annabeth, take the teeth out of his hands and put them in his bag. We'll let him decide what to do with them when he wakes up." With that, I felt someone pick me up, carry me a short distance, and place me on a bed. After that, I heard no more.

* * *

 

A few hours later, I woke as I felt the first rays of the sun touch my skin. I walked outside to see what kind of place Mom had died to get me to. One of the first things I noticed, was the fact that I was not the first one up. In the middle of a football sized field, surrounded by twelve enormous cabins, was a large campfire where an eight-year-old girl was tending the fire. I walked up to her and said, "Hi, who are you?"

"Well, this is unusual. It's rare that one of you comes to me first, or at all for that matter."

"What do you mean, one of us? And again, who are you?"

She laughed, saying, "One of you demigods. Usually you take little or no notice of me. And my name's Hestia, not that you'd know me."

"Hestia? You don't mean Vesta, do you? The daughter of Saturn and Ops, goddess of hearth and home? Patron goddess of the Vestal Virgins?"

"You know who I am? Wow, I'm even more impressed with you, Alex. If your mom taught you that well about us, than I wish I'd been able to keep her alive."

"Thanks, I think. But what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be on Olympus?"

"Oh, I'm here whenever a new half-blood shows up. Anytime a family grows, I'm there. So, how did you remember me? Usually, even if one of you have heard of me, you don't remember me."

"It's because I consider you THE most important Olympian."

That really shocked her. "Me? Why do you say that?"

"Well what's more important than home? What's the use of love, or work without a home? Why do people fight, if not for their home? And to quote the great Roman statesman, Marcus Tullius Cicero: There is no place more delightful than one's own fireplace."

"Now I really like you. If only I could say 'Welcome to your new home.' Alas, but I can't. Your goal of a true home lies elsewhere, son of Rome." With that, she vanished with a burst of flames from the hearth, leaving me more confused than Janus, the god with two faces.

"Who was that?" I knew that voice, it was the beautiful one from last night. I turned, and saw the blonde girl behind me. Ha, I knew the voice had to belong to her.

"That was Lady Vesta. I presume that you're Annabeth?"

"Yes, how did you know?"

"I heard Chiron mention your name last night. Where is he? I'm assuming he's the one in charge here."

"He should be at the Big House, the building you stayed in last night. But back up, what do you mean you heard us last night? You were unconscious. How could you have heard us?"

"I don't know. It's just something I can do. No matter whether I'm awake, asleep, or unconscious I hear everything around me, and remember it. Why?"

"It could be a clue to the identity of your Olympian parent. In your case, it would probably be Morpheus, god of sleep & dreams. Hopefully you'll be determined soon."

"Determined?"

"Most of us don't know our Olympian parent when we arrive. So we wait until they claim us. I don't suppose you know, do you?"

"No, Mom never even mentioned I was a demigod until last night. The only hint she gave was that she named me Alexander Julius for a reason, whatever that means. Have you been determined?"

"Yeah, I knew before I got here. My mom's Athena, cabin 6 if you're interested."

"So, where will I be staying?"

"Hermes cabin, number 11. Last one on the right. At least until you're determined." By this time, the camp was buzzing with activity, and nearly all the cabins were noisier than a New York street during rush hour. "You see the tall blonde boy over there? That's your cabin counsellor, Luke. He'll tell you all you need to know." I looked at the guy she mentioned. He looked like he was about 19, fairly tall, muscular and very cute (in a dangerous sort of way,) with a scar that ran from his right cheekbone to his edge of his mouth. It looked like an old knife wound, or, more likely, a claw. He had the air of someone who could either be your best friend or your worst enemy. Right then, I decided to make it my mission at camp to win him over as a friend.

"Hi, my name's Alex Summers. You're Luke, right?"

"That's me. You new here?"

"Just arrived last night. Annabeth said I was to stay with you until I was determined."

"Last night? But the only person to get here last night was some kid who crashed in on a mystery monster. You don't look like you could have killed it without a weapon."

"Well I did. I don't know how, but I did. So, which bunk is mine?"

At that Luke started laughing. "Bunk? The temps are lucky if they get a piece of the floor large enough to sleep on."

"In that case, how much of the roof is clear?"

"The roof? Ha, that's a good one."

"No, really. Is there room on the roof? Most of the roofs I saw here are flat, so why not?"

"You're serious?" I nodded firmly. "Well, in that case, the roof is all yours, if you can get up there that is."

"Well, let me get my stuff and I'll take on that challenge. Chiron will know where it is, right?" Luke nodded, and I headed back to the Big House. When I got inside, someone was waiting for me. That someone was clearly a centaur, but that's not what surprised me. "Mr. Brunner? You're Chiron?"

"Ah, Alex. There you are. I didn't expect you to get up on your first day. Second maybe, but definitely not the first. Would you like something to drink?"

"Sure, but are you the Chiron? And if you are, how's that possible? I seem to remember that you asked to become mortal to escape the pain of one of Hercules arrows." While I was talking, he handed me a golden iced drink. I took a sip, expecting a fruit juice. But what I actually tasted could only be described as liquid gold.

As I drank it, Mr. B/Chiron explained about the camp. He really was the Chiron from the myths, but he never came anywhere near Hercules' poisoned arrows, and he explained that the Olympians were alive and still up to their old tricks, and the camp was to train the children that resulted. Then he lead me down to the camp arena, apparently he had two reasons to do so, first was to meet the other director of the camp, and the second he was staying mum on.

We were just entering the arena when I heard a man say, "So, this is the boy that raised such a ruckus." The guy that spoke was a small, chubby man with black, slightly greying hair, a thick mustache and beard in a spotted shirt. He was clearly no stranger to alcohol, but that wasn't the odd thing. For the briefest second, I saw something completely different: the man I saw was a short, fat, ancient man with a large nose and was so red, that it was clear he was a lifelong alcoholic. The image was so hilarious that I had to laugh. "And what are you laughing at young man?" This guy clearly had a temper, probably because he'd been away from alcohol too long.

"Mr. D, please be nicer to him. Alex, this is Mr. D, he is the other camp director," Chiron introduced. "Now, could you please tell us what this is, if you can?" He pointed at a carcass deep in the early morning shadows of the arena. I moved closer so I could get a better look at it. "Do you know what it is, Alex?"

"Yeah, I know what it is. It's called a Demonio del Muerta, Spanish for Demon of the Dead, I don't know it's native name. If this camp is focused on the Greco-Roman myths, then I'm not surprised you can't recognize it. It's American, Inca or Chachapoya to be exact. It's a servant of their version of Pluto, a god called Sapoy. It's part jaguar, part condor, and part snake. And this one killed my mother." Hmm, oddly enough, both Chiron and Bacchus seemed to flinch when I mentioned Rome.

"If it's a monster, then why hasn't it turned to dust?" Mr. D had grown very upset by this point.

"Probably because it's not a Greek monster, just something Pluto recruited over the millennia. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to go back home."

"Now, wait just a minute Alan! You can't go home, as much as I'd like it, it's too dangerous for you!"

"Why, Bacchus! Genuine concern for a demigod? I'm surprised," I said sarcastically while the two stared at me in shock. "You'd earned a reputation for hating us. And two things. First, the name's Alex, or Alexander if you insist on the long version. Second, the only home I have now is here, at camp. Another thing, the disguise ain't bad, but I've seen the real you. And I've got to say, you look foolish. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if some jesters based themselves on the real you."

"DO NOT, TEST ME, BOY!" I think I really ticked him off that time, but I couldn't resist having the final word.

"Test you? Bacchus, my dear friend, you don't know the meaning of the word." With that, I left the arena and all Bacchus could do was fume at my parting shot. When I arrived back at the Mercury cabin, I stopped for a few seconds near Luke, just long enough to say, "You forgot to mention that Bacchus was in charge of the camp." I then headed to the second floor and started scanning the ceiling for the telltale sign that would lead me to the roof. Naturally it was at the far end of the hallway, but I was able to get to the roof. On the roof, I was able to set up a small cot to sleep on, hang the fangs on a section of raised wall, and set up the three things I valued most in the world. The items were two models given to me by Dr. Egan while he was still with my mom. The first was a model of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. The other model held the greatest sentimental value for me as Charles gave it to me only 24 hours before he disappeared, a model of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. I'd always wondered why he gave me that, I'd never shown any interest in the myths before then. In fact it was the model that got me interested in them in the first place. I then grabbed my violin and started playing Lucas Grabeel's Go the Distance.

I had just finished when I noticed Luke about to step on the model Wonder. "You better watch your feet Luke, or you might lose one."

Luckily, he noticed what he was about to do and backed away. "Sorry, I just wanted to see what you did with the place, and I got to say, not bad. And you were great on the violin. Maybe you're one of Apollo's, they're the only ones good with music around here. Oh, and we've got rock-climbing in five minutes."

"Thanks Luke. How did you get up here?" He pointed to his shoes, it was only then that I noticed that his shoes had wings on them. Probably a gift from Mercury, his dad. So I decided to explain how I got up here, I couldn't have him destroying my stuff if he landed on it one day. "You know Luke, there is a door that leads up here. Just go to the end of the hallway on the second floor and look up. You'll see a hole in the wood just large enough for a finger to fit in. You pull it down, and you'll release a set of stairs that lead up here."

* * *

My first classes at Camp Half-Blood, to put it mildly, sucked. I was nearly killed twelve times on one trip up the rock wall, and I vowed never to climb it again. I was absolutely terrible at Greek, struggling to learn just the alphabet, and I got creamed again in foot races, all of my cabin-mates beat me, or at least, all the ones that actually belonged there. I managed to beat some of the minor demigods in the race, fortunately. We were on our way to sword lessons, when I got caught by Ms. Ugly from last night. "HOLD IT! You're not going anywhere yet, Summers! We've got an initiation for you."

"Do you really want to go up against us, Clarisse?" Wow, Luke was defending me after only a few hours? He really meant it when he said that we were each other's family. Then again, maybe he just didn't like her.

Either way, I had to create my own reputation here and not hide behind the other Cabin 11 kids. "Listen, Clarisse. I'll make you a deal."

"What kind of deal, newbie?"

"We're headed to the arena, so how about this. You and I duel, you win, and you can do whatever you want to me for a week. I win, and you don't touch me or my friends. Deal?"

"Done!" She couldn't have been happier.

"Alex, what did you do? She's a daughter of Ares! She'll kill you!" Hmm, so it was concern for me. Luke was really impressing me now.

"I figured that, that's why I suggested it."

"Are you nuts? Going up against an Ares kid! You do know who Ares is, right?"

"Of course, god of war. But don't worry, I've got a plan." When we got to the arena, Clarisse got into full war regalia, breastplate, shield, the whole nine yards. Luke, in the meantime was trying to get me ready, by loading me up on armour, but I insisted on taking only a sword. The sword I grabbed seemed to be a Roman gladius, longer than the Greek short swords and slightly heavier, but to me it seemed to be so perfectly designed for me that it was almost an extension of my arm.

Luke was still trying to get me to change my mind about the fight. "Are you sure that I can't persuade you to take some armour? Just a shield?" My only response was to move to the center of the arena and take up a classic fighting stance, feet spread apart and sword raised at an angle. Clarisse charged me and I stepped aside at the last second, hitting her in the back with my sword and then backing off. She made a few more attempts to barrel me over, but they all ended the same way. Clarisse then made a few stabs with her spear, but I was able to dodge all but the last. The last one hit on my arm with a jolt of electricity that actually felt good. With a surge of adrenaline, I slashed at Clarisse, cutting a huge gash in her breastplate and then made a huge dent in her shield and knocked her spear away. She grabbed a sword off her belt, and moved in, slowly this time. The next fifteen minutes seemed to pass in seconds, with no one getting the upper hand. But I watched carefully for the signs I knew would soon be coming. Thrust, block, counter-thrust, block, we continued until I saw what I was looking for: beads of sweat on her skin, slower responses, drooping shoulders. I made my move. Moving to take advantage of her, I slashed her shoulders then knocked her helmet and sword away, ending the fight with my sword at the back of her neck.

Our audience was frozen in shock, no one could believe that I had beat her. Luke was the only one who could speak, and even he was stuttering, "How. . . how did you do that? She's. . . she's almost . . . as good as me."

"It's all about planning ahead. If you come up against a better fighter, follow Ulysses' lead. Instead of outfighting them, you need to outthink them. All of Clarisse's armour hurt her. The breastplate added weight, so she couldn't move as fast. The shield added weight, kept her off balance, and kept her from using her sword and spear at the same time. And the helmet narrowed her vision, so I could attack her from the side and she wouldn't notice. I had only the sword so I could move faster and more quickly than her."

"Hmm, sounds like something Athena would say," Luke replied. Then he noticed my arm. "Hey, didn't she get you on the arm?"

"Yeah, with her spear. Why?"

"Where's your wound?" I looked at my arm, and the only way you could tell there had even been a cut was the fact that my shirt was still cut, and stained with blood. "Okay, that's unusual. Who could heal that fast? Aceso, or maybe Asclepios, or Panacea?" Wow, I thought I was the only one who knew about those particular deities, and Luke even remembered that they were the deities of healing. After everyone recovered, we went on to archery. There, I had a problem. But it's not a problem you would expect from a first time archer, I couldn't find a bow that fit me. Chiron said that when you pull on a bow, you should feel resistance, but every single one of them gave easily.

"Hmm, we don't have any other bows, so what do we do now?" Chiron seemed very confused, I doubted he had ever had a situation like this before.

"What about his bow, Chiron? I know we have it in the trophy room. Why don't we let Alex try it out?" Hmm, wonder what Luke means by his bow. Chiron agreed, and Luke sent the fastest boy from our cabin to the Big House. While Namir was gone, Chiron taught as much about archery as he could considering I didn't have a bow. Fortunately, Namir returned quickly and handed me a huge recurve style bow.

"So, whose bow is this?" I asked.

"You're holding a bow of legend, Alex. This is the bow of Odysseus. No one has been able to string the bow since he died. And I do mean, no one. Not even Chiron here could string it." WOAH! I was holding the bow of my hero! And he was the last one to use it! I could hardly believe what was going on, but a small nudge from Chiron woke me up from my shock. I grabbed the string, but I couldn't get the bow to bend. Then, I stopped and studied the bow carefully, and noticed that the bow was thicker at the "top" than at the "bottom" and I realized Odysseus had tricked those who would claim the bow. I quickly undid the string and tried again. This time, the bow bent easily, and I was able to string it. As I picked it up, it felt as natural as the sword had. I notched an arrow and pulled it back easily, but this time I felt the resistance the others had lacked, I took aim and fired. Then, without even checking my previous shot, I fired again and again.

"Whoa, hold it there Alex." Luke ran up to the targets and froze there. When he came back, he was holding the target. The first arrow had hit dead center in the target, the second arrow had split the first, and the third had done the same thing. "Makes me really think you are one of Apollo's. First, you're really good on the violin, you heal fast, and now you're a crack shot with the bow." After that, they gave me harder and harder targets to hit. When we moved on to the javelin, we discovered that I simply could not miss. No matter how far the target, or how small, I hit the bull's-eye every time, unless it was simply out of my range, of course.

When we were allowed to do what we wished, I made a beeline for the Vulcan Cabin. I'd had an idea during sword training, and I knew that if anyone would know if it was feasible, it would be one of them. "Is anybody home?" I shouted. Fortunately for me, there was. And even better, it was the gentle giant from the previous night.

"Hi, I'm Charles Beckendorf, but please call me Beckendorf."

"Hi, I was hoping you could help me out with something."

"Oh? What's that?"

"I've got an idea for a weapon. From what I understand, celestial bronze hurts mythological beings and steel hurts mortals. Now, has anyone ever tried to make celestial steel?"

"Not that I know. Stygian steel, sure. But celestial? I don't think so. It sounds interesting though. What would you like?"

"Let's start small, just get me some arrowheads, and one spearhead. And try to get it as pure as possible."

"Will do. I'll have Jake Mason work with me. The more of us you have working, the sooner it will get done."

"Thanks. Oh, and one more thing. Could you work on some designs for me? I was thinking of merging a sword and a bow into one."

"Huh?"

"You've seen Chiron's pen that becomes a sword, right? I'd like something like that, but one that has a bow as well as a sword. And one other weapon," I said, then named the third weapon.

"Interesting choices, I'll get right on it. Thanks, we usually don't get challenging assignments like this." The rest of the day went by fairly uneventfully, that is, until dinner. At dinner, the other campers would burn a portion of their meal as an offering to the gods. I did something quite different. I would burn at least three times as much as the others, and poured out some of my drink, something no one else did. I'd done the same at lunch, but no one had noticed until now.

Luke was the first to ask. "Hey, Alex? Why are you offering so much?"

"Well, I'm following camp tradition and keeping a law."

"Law? What law?"

"Alright, let me explain. One portion is offered to Hestia, in keeping with Greek tradition. Another portion is offered to another of the Olympians, today it was Hermes, tomorrow, it'll be someone else. And to keep one of the Levitical laws, I offer the first ten percent of my meal to Adonai El Shaddai."

“Ah, you’re Jewish?”

“Messianic Jew, but yes.” Luke looked confused, so I explained. “Jewish Christian, simple as that.” Luke nodded and let it go after that, and we soon headed to bed. My first day at Camp Half-Blood was over.


	4. Reunited

The next day went pretty much the same, including that hated wall (Mr. D threatened to toss me into the middle of the woods if I didn't climb the wall,) except I gained a nickname. "Nygma? Why Nygma, Luke?"

"Simple, it's short for Enigma, or mystery. And you are a mystery, Alex. Your dad's a mystery, you're a Jew, you have very unusual talents and interests, you haven’t made any progress with your Greek lessons, you won't even wear the camp T-shirt, and you’re always calling the gods by their Roman names."

"I'll never wear that shirt, it's stupid. And who do the others think is my dad?"

"Well, the guy who's got the others have the most money on is Apollo. Another big one is Ares. . ."

"Wait, MARS? Why him? I can understand Apollo, but why him?"

"Well, you were able to beat Clarisse yesterday when you'd never even touched a sword before. That's usually a sign of Ares or Athena, and it's obviously not Athena, though you do sound like one of them. If it weren't for the fact that we buried your mom the other night, she would be on the list of potentials. Another one is Morpheus, considering you hear things when you're asleep. Oh, and I'd watch myself around Mr. D if I were you. Sounds like you made him really mad."

Later that afternoon, I pulled Luke aside to ask him a question. “Luke, why are there four empty cabins?”

He gave a sad sigh and said "Follow me." He led me outside the cabin and started walking towards the border of the camp. “To start off with, number two is an honorary one for Hera, so she doesn’t get too mad at us. She’s the goddess of marriage, so she’ll never have demigod children and hates all of us, but especially those that are children of Zeus. Number eight is for Artemis, and while she’ll never have children, she does have her Hunters, and they occasionally visit us. One and three are for Zeus and Poseidon, and they haven’t had any kids for a while.”

“Why not? I know that Juno isn't that much of a threat to Jupiter, otherwise he'd have stopped after Hercules at the latest."

“Well, around the start of World War II, the Oracle made a prophecy that said one of the children of the Big Three would make a choice that would either preserve or end the reign of the gods, so they swore off all relations with mortals, not that it worked too well.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, about seventeen years ago, Zeus fell for this actress out in California, and they had a daughter. Afterwards, they had some trouble, I never found out the whole story. Thalia, that was her name, ran away when she was twelve, and eventually made it to Virginia, where she met me and later, Annabeth. We were eventually joined by Grover, who was sent to bring Thalia here, but we ran into trouble, and Thalia sacrificed her life to save us." By this time, we had made it to the Times Square tree. Luke stopped and continued the story. "As she was dying, Zeus changed her into a tree to save her life. She's still there," he said, pointing at a vaguely human form at the base of the tree, "and her life force is what maintains the camp's boundaries."

Grover was the one with them? And my sister was the one that had to die? I was about ready to strangle that damned faun with my bare hands! But I pushed my anger aside to ask a more important question. “And why don’t Pluto or Vesta have cabins here?”

“Umm, Greek names please?”

“Oh, sorry, Hades and Hestia.”

“Ah, well, Hestia is fine with the hearths we have, why do you think we have such a large one between the cabins? As for Hades,” he shuddered before continuing. “Well, let’s just say that it wouldn’t be pleasant.”

“And why not? I always thought him to be one of the coolest of the Olympians! Even in the Disney version of the myth of Hercules.”

Luke just shook his head, “You truly do deserve the nickname of Nygma, Alex. You really are a mystery.”

That night, as I played my violin, I thought I heard something coming from the south. I stopped playing and strained to hear and figure out what made it. As I listened, it became clear that it was the clomp of the hooves of something big. Then, from the same direction, I smelled the sea. I thought nothing of it, until I realized that the wind was blowing from the west, the one direction I shouldn't be able to smell the sea. I was heading out of the cabin when the hooves stopped moving and I got a strong whiff of sulfur, a sure sign of a monster's death. By the time I got to the Big House, Chiron told me that a demigod had been found and placed in the building so he could recover from his fight, with the Minotaur!

In order to calm down and sleep, I pulled out my IPod and started listening to music. I finally fell asleep as another of my favourite songs, Lucas Grabeel's version of Go the Distance started playing. Once again, I had an odd dream, but this one was very different from the last one.

* * *

 

This dream came in multiple parts. First, I watched as a pale man and an Italian woman watched over their children, who seemed about my age. Then the pale man threw up a wall of black energy as the building they were in was destroyed. When the smoke cleared, Alecto picked up the children, and took them to the Underworld and dipped them in a river before taking them to . . . Las Vegas? and placing them in a casino.

The next scene was also at the casino, and if I didn't know any better, I'd have sworn that I saw me and the boy from the previous part talking to each other!

The third had the two of us in it again, only this time it was during a New England winter, and we were hugging each other, like we hadn't seen each other in a long time, though we couldn't have been more than two years older. If I read my eyes right, I had a serious crush on him, and wanted to kiss the other boy.

Again I was in it, this time talking to someone who could easily pass as my twin, and we appeared to be somewhere in California.

In the next scene, I was in Camp Half-Blood, standing inside one of the cabins, with a pale young man in front of me. Based on the earlier visions, I'd guess I was about 15 or 16, as was the other youth, who looked much like the pale man from the first vision. Finally, I heard his voice, as he fearfully confessed he was gay. I watched as I took him in my arms and finally kissed him.

The next part had me and my twin again, and we were travelling through a tunnel when we came upon a large valley. Around the valley was a river shaped like a capital G. Nearest us was a military camp, accessed by a pair of bridges. At the far end of the river was a city full of buildings made in the classical Greco-Roman style. Just south of there was a hill full of temples in the same style. My twin turned to me and said "Welcome home, Alex. This is where you belong, little brother."

The seventh and final part of the vision had the most people in it of all the visions. Percy, Annabeth, myself, my twin, and my future boyfriend, along with four others I didn't recognize were battling an enormous army at the foot of Mount Olympus itself. But how could Percy of all people be there, in something that was clearly mythological in origin?

* * *

 

Over the next two days, it took all my energy to focus on the activities at camp, especially when I found out that my old friend Grover had come in with the newbie. But I had something else on my mind: perfecting my dream weapon. Fortunately, Beckendorf and his brother Jake were able to create celestial steel their first try, and it worked perfectly. And working together, we were able to design it so that most of the time it looked like a pen, but with a push of a button, it would become a poleaxe or a bow. But outside of that, I was thinking about the boy in the infirmary, especially considering I had realized that I could smell, and now hear, the sea coming from his room. The fact that Chiron wouldn't let me see him made me even more curious about him.

Finally, on the third day after his arrival, I spotted him; odd thing was, I was sure I recognized him. Chiron had been taking him on the camp tour and was just leaving Mercury’s Cabin. Apparently, the newbie was one of the undetermined, 'cause I heard Luke say "Now, now campers. That's what we're here for. Welcome, Percy. You've got a choice of a spot on the floor, or a section of the roof." Percy? Nah, it couldn't be, could it?

What I saw stole my breath away. "Percy? Is that really you?" Could my dreams actually be visions of the future? Or was I deluding myself?

"Alex? What are you doing here?" Percy gasped before pulling me into a hug, which I naturally returned.

Luke was surprised to say the least. "Wait a minute, you two know each other?"

We let go of each other and explained how we grew up together. “Well, at least now we know we have a friend here, eh Perce?” Percy just grinned back at me. "Luke, Percy will bunk with me, assuming that's alright with you?" I asked, turning to my friend.

"You don't even need to ask, Alex," Percy replied with a grin. "So, how long will I be staying here?"

Annabeth pulled him aside to talk to him. She surprised me by starting out with “I can’t believe I thought you were the one!”

“What’s your problem? All I know is that I kill some bull guy-”

“Don’t talk like that! You know how many kids at this camp wish they’d had your chance?”

“To get killed?”

“To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?”

“Um, Annabeth, could you lay off him, please? Up until recently, we had no idea that the gods actually existed!”

To my surprise, both of them turned to me and shouted in unison “STAY OUT OF THIS, SUMMERS!” I was in so much shock that Percy yelled at me (that was actually the first time, outside of Yancy,) that I stayed quiet through the rest of their conversation.

We were on our way back when Clarisse showed up. "Well, a newbie!”

"Clarisse, I thought we agreed that you wouldn't attack my friends. Unless, of course, you want to get beat again. Oh, and Percy, meet Clarisse LaRue, daughter of Mars."

"War god? That explains the smell."

"You should have said he was your friend before I found him. Now, come on, Prissy, this is personal now. We’ve got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Jackson.” I signaled Jake for my spear, figuring I'd have a better chance of fighting Clarisse if I had a weapon. Unfortunately for Percy, she got him to the girls' bathroom before Jake could retrieve it. "Have a drink, newbie, it's on me."

I had an idea as to what was about to happen, so I quickly ducked behind the door, using my new shield as a mirror to look in. Annabeth looked in to watch, so I warned her “Trust me, Owl-head, you don’t want to be in the line of fire.” She just ignored me. Clarisse on the other hand was just about to dunk Percy into the toilet when it happened. Water and waste burst out of the toilet, just missing Percy and hitting Clarisse, knocking her down. When her sisters attempted to join in, the rest of the toilets and the showers joined in, shooting them out. When it was over, only Percy and I were still dry, even Annabeth was soaked. "The drink is on her, alright," I joked, as I suddenly understood why I smelled the sea on Percy.

When I looked at Annabeth, she was staring thoughtfully at Percy; I was convinced she had figured out the same thing I had.

"What? What are you two thinking?"

"I'm thinking that I want you on my team for capture the flag," Annabeth said.

Upon hearing that, I immediately ran to rejoin our cabin and pulled Luke aside. "Capture the flag? Really? Is that all we have to do that could help us learn to work as a team?"

"We're Greeks, Alex, we've always been more about individual accomplishments than working together, you know that."

Scowling at that, I asked him "Which is the bigger number: five, or one?"

I could tell that I had shocked him with that question. "Five, of course, everyone knows that."

I held up an open hand and explained, "Five." Then, raising my other hand and making a fist, I said "One. One army behind a single leader with a single purpose. That is a force to be reckoned with. How did Greece defeat Persia, both times? Not by squabbling over individual rights but by uniting against their foe. Yet we have no training to even teach us to work together just cabin against cabin! Everything is about the individual, even capture the flag! Oh, there may be an overall plan, but it comes down to the individual!"

Luke just shook his head. "You don't get it, Nygma. You simply don't get it."

* * *

 

Over the next few days, we learned that Percy was terrible at almost all of the activities, (he was even worse than me!) The only ones that he seemed good at were canoeing (understandable, considering who I knew had to be his dad,) and swordsmanship (of course, that might have really been beginners luck, or the water.) Everyone was trying to guess who his dad was, but they had no idea. Luke even tried guessing goddesses, despite the fact that Percy knew his mom. By the day of Capture the Flag however, Luke and I had been able to get his skills up from lousy, to just short of average, at least mostly, he still sucked with the bow and the spear. Mercury had allied themselves with Minerva and Apollo, (for a total of 107 campers,) while we faced Mars, Ceres, Bacchus, Venus and Vulcan (a total of 93 campers.) Luckily for me, Beckendorf and Jake had been able to finish my gladius, which I named Ventus, (a Latin word that literally meant Tempest or Storm,) and they delivered it a day before the fight. Unfortunately, Annabeth put me and Percy on border defense, the most boring part of Capture the Flag. When I complained to Annabeth, all she had to say was "Athena always has a plan."

Soon after the fight started, I could have sworn I smelled sulfur coming from the same direction as the sound of a dog growling, and it was extremely close. I had no time to focus on it though, as seven Ares and two Hephaestus kids came out of the bushes and charged us, with good ole Clarisse leading the way, shouting "Cream the punks!" She hit me with her spear, before moving on to Percy. Odd thing was, all the spear seemed to do was charge me up, and I quickly disabled two of the Ares kids and both of Hephaestus' kids. I turned to check on Percy, but he had already knocked out four of the remaining Ares kids and was in the process of finishing off Clarisse. I turned just in time to hear Clarisse call him “Ah! You idiot! You corpse-breathed worm!”

Just then, Luke and several of our cabin-mates charged through the woods, bearing the Ares banner high above them. Before any of the Ares team could recover and attack him, Luke crossed the creek and the banner changed to a silver banner with a caduceus. Annabeth and Percy started talking, while I tried to focus on the growling sound I’d heard. I quickly caught the sulfuric scent again, just before an enormous hellhound burst into the clearing, charging straight for Percy and Annabeth. Before anyone could respond, I threw my spear straight at it, piercing it through the mouth, instantly killing it. “Someone summoned the beast,” Chiron said. “Someone inside the camp.”

“It’s all Percy’s fault! Percy summoned it!”

I scoffed at that. “Sure, Clarisse. Like Percy would know how to do that, let alone order it to attack him.”

Before anyone could say another word though, a blue glow appeared. We all turned to see what it was, only to find a glowing trident floating above Percy’s head, and almost everyone bowed to him. “It is determined. Poseidon, Eathshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail Perseus Jackson, son of the Sea God.” I simply stood there and smiled at my best friend.


	5. The Quest Begins

**Chapter IV: The Quest Begins,**  
**Or, I Leave the Camp without Permission**

After Capture the flag, things got a little . . . tense. After seeing Percy beat up five Ares campers, the only ones willing to train with him were myself and Luke, and Luke was starting to push Percy hard. I was getting upset with my fellow cabin-mates, as all of them were talking about how Percy made the camp dangerous just by being there. At night, it wasn't much better. My dream from my first night was getting more frequent as the days passed, and a new element had been added: beyond the scythe and the youth (who now seemed vaguely familiar) was a hole with a rock over the entrance, and the rock had seven cords with seals on them, but one cord and seal had been broken. And beyond the rock I could hear a voice calling out, "Let me loose! Break the seals! Break the seals and I shall be free again!"

A few days after "The Incident" I notice a huge storm heading our way, and Chiron walking towards Percy's cabin. I decided to follow and see if I could get any information as to what was going on. When I arrived I heard Chiron saying "Zeus' Bolt is the most powerful weapon ever created, and it's been stolen." Well, that explains the thunderstorms missing the lightning. "Everyone thinks you're The Lightning Thief. And if it's not returned by the Summer Solstice in ten days, there will be a war." Percy actually said that it wasn't his problem because it had to do with the world of myth. Silly Percy, didn't he know by now that he was part of both worlds, the mortal world and the mythological world? Chiron was upset about that too. "This is about all worlds! Olympians would have to choose sides! Earth would become a battleground! Volcanoes erupting, earthquakes, raging fires, tornadoes, tsunamis! The end of life as you know it."

That convinced Percy. "What can we do?"

"We have only one choice, to retrieve the Bolt and return it to Zeus. And to do that, you must consult the Oracle. Now, head up to the Big House, she's on the top floor. I'll meet you at the door, assuming you're still sane." Still sane? What did that mean? I figured I'd better follow Percy, just to make sure he'd be safe. (NO, I'm not into Percy, he's just the only friend I'd ever had for longer than three months. He was practically my brother.)

When we got there, we found a mummy that looked like it'd been dead since at least the seventies, more likely the sixties though. When we walked up to it, it looked straight at me and said I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. I have been waiting for you, servant of the Most High. She then raised her hand and passed me a large scroll with a Latin label saying: _The Prophecy of Phoebe to the Cumaean Oracle in the Fifteenth Year of Tiberius Caesar_. When I looked at Percy to see his reaction to that, he was shrouded in a green mist, and I could hear a voice saying You shall be betrayed by one who calls you friend And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.

After the Oracle experience, we were both pretty shaken. Percy stayed in the attic a good half-hour before he came out, while I headed to the beach. Luke had told me that only three people were allowed to go on a quest, and that any more invited disaster. I also knew that Grover and Annabeth would demand to go on the quest, Annabeth so she could actually test herself, and Grover needed to complete his protector duties so he could earn his horns and search for Pan. Unfortunately, that left me in a quandary, because I refused to leave Percy again. Then I heard something that made me decide, as Grover asked “So, who knows how to get to the Underworld?”

“Did not think of that one,” Percy responded. In that instant, I knew what I had to do, and nothing would stop me from accomplishing my goals.

* * *

I turned back to the cabins, calling out "Charlie, Jake! Bring me Ventus, my shield and arrows, quickly!"

Luke came running when he heard that. "Alex! What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm going after Percy, and there's nothing you can do to stop me, Luke. So don't even try." Charlie and Jake showed up then and tossed my weapons to me in their disguises; a pen for Ventus, a watch for the shield, and a packet of toothpicks for the quiver.  Unfortunately, the armor I had asked them to make wouldn’t be ready for another two weeks, a downside to asking for chain mail armor.

"Well, if I can't stop you, I guess the next best thing would be to give you the best chance of surviving that I can." He lead me to a small cabin behind the main Mercury cabin. It looked like a giant shoe store inside, there had to be a thousand shoe boxes in there. "My dad's a jerk, but he's got a lot of cool stuff. Flying shoes, my dad's got a million of these little guys. Look under them." I did, and found an old map of the US. "You see, people have gone to the Underworld without having to be dead. Orpheus did it, Hercules did it, Houdini did it, my dad does it all the time. Getting in is the easy part, getting out, well that's tricky. This is a map to Persephone's pearls. She occasionally has secret visitors, and she keeps pearls hidden for them all around the world."

"Persephone? As in Proserpina? Pluto's wife? I thought she really loved him?"

"Yeah, so? Hades really loves her, but it doesn't stop him from visiting mortals every so often. All the gods are the same, even if they love their spouse, they still like a little variety in their lives. Anyway, these pearls provide a quick escape from the Underworld. To activate them, you take a pearl, you step on it, crush it, and visualize where you want to go. Now, there's three pearls in the United States. This map will guide you there, right here is your first location. After you locate that pearl, the map will lead you to the second, then the third, and then you're off to Hades. Percy already has one, so don't worry about that."

"Thanks Luke, you've been a real help. By the way, you wouldn't happen to know what happened to the Demonio del Muerta, would you?"

"The what?"

"The monster that I rode into camp on."

"Oh, that thing. You remember the mystery meat stew we had last night?" I nodded yes. "Apparently, since it still hadn't turned to dust, Mr. D had it cooked up. Your monster was the mystery meat."

"Really? Well, then I guess I should bring some more back, that was pretty good."

"Hey, I've got one request for you," Luke said just as I was leaving.

"Yeah, what is it?"

"If you see my dad on the highway to hell, kick his ass for me." I gave him a grin and again turned to leave, but not before he actually kissed me! "Just for luck," he explained. I couldn't help but blush at him and ran out before anyone else could see.

I had almost made it out of camp when Chiron and Dionysus showed up. "Sorry, Alex but we can't let you leave."

"Chiron, Mr. D, don't try to stop me. If you do, I'll make sure you regret it." As I said that, I pulled out Ventus and my quiver and knocked two arrows, aiming at them.

"Andy, why are you willing to risk your life for Peter? Why would you risk losing the only family you have for him?"

"Mr. D, the family you choose is far more valuable than your blood family. Percy might as well be my brother considering how close we are. And I am not going to lose him if I can do something about it. Now move aside, or I will shoot you."

"Alex, don't be a fool! You can't shoot Mr. D! He's a god, he'd kill you!"

"Chiron, I really don't want to shoot you, so please move." Chiron actually listened, but Mr. D refused to leave, so I shot him in the shoulder and throat. "Will you move now Mr. D? If you don't, Ariadne might not want you until you heal." This time, his eyes started glowing as he stared at me, but nothing happened. "What's that? Is something supposed to be happening? Now MOVE Bacchus!" He still didn't move so I shot him one more time in the crotch. After that, he moved alright, back to Olympus. I picked up the arrows from where they'd fallen on the ground and continued on my way.

* * *

After leaving the camp, I took Luke's flying shoes and took off after Percy and the others. Fortunately, it wasn't too hard to follow their trail. Along the way, I noticed that a bus had crashed along the New Jersey River Road. I flew down to take a look and I could easily smell sulfur, there had been monsters there not too long ago. When I landed I could hear the bus driver saying "Next thing I know, this kid grabs the wheel and starts turning it every direction! When I tried to get the bus off the road, he hit the emergency brake and we crashed into the trees."

Hmm, sounds like something Percy might do. "Excuse me, but was this guy about my age, had black hair, eyes as green as the sea, and wearing an orange T-shirt?"

"Yeah, that's definitely him. I could never forget those eyes. Oh, and he had two friends with him."

"A blond girl with the same orange T-shirt and intelligent grey eyes? And a black kid with crutches?" He answered yes again. Oh yeah, it was definitely them.

The cops started looking at me suspiciously, "You know something about this, kid?"

"Yeah, but considering you are mere mortals, I doubt you'll ever believe me. In fact, you'd probably call up the little men in white coats to throw me in a padded cell."

They didn't look too happy with the way I called them mortals, "Try us, kid."

"Alright, well the Olympians exist, and two of my friends are demigods, the other is a satyr. The reason they made the bus crash is because there was a monster on the bus. And when I say monsters, I mean like cyclops, minotaurs, Furies, things like that."

"Yeah, sure, sure they were." Then one of them whispered to the other, "Hey, Joe. Call the sanitarium, this kid's lost his mind." Ah, mortals, so predictable. With the little men in white coats on the way, I figured it would be best to get out while I still could, and flew off.

I'd barely gone ten yards towards the pearl when a few old friends showed up. "Ah, Meg! Alecto! Can't I stay away from you for one month? Why do you have to keep torturing me? What did I do to you? Or Pluto for that matter?"

"We want VENGEANCE! You killed us once before, now we're going to kill YOU! Tell us where it is though, and we'll make it quick and painless."

"First, I don't know what you're looking for, so how can I tell you where it is? Second, last time we met, I was weaponless and I had no training, and I still killed you. Do you really think that you'll survive now that I have both?" They just screamed like, well Furies, and charged. I pulled out Ventus and shot both of them. I figured this would be the best time to find out if the Vulcan boys had been able to work the arrows to my specifications, so I shouted "Returno!" or in English, return. It worked perfectly, the arrows flew straight to my hand. I would have to find a way to thank those two when I got back. I finally found Auntie Em's Garden Emporium, and naturally, there was trouble there.

When I arrived at Auntie Em's, I heard Grover yelling for Percy & Annabeth, so I dived down towards them, and I crashed into Grover & Percy. "Alex, what are you doing here, and couldn't you two watch where you're going?" Percy asked.

"Perc! We're in Medusa's lair!" When Grover said that we both started yelling for Annabeth. It wasn't long before I heard someone saying, "Well this is a fabulous surprise. It's so heartening to have such young visitors. We get so lonely here. Don't we? That's why I create my statues. They're my only company, Daughter of Athena."

"Guys, Medusa's over there."

"Well that's good. At least we don't have to look for her." Good old Percy, always looking on the bright side. Unfortunately he didn't react so well when I told him that she was with Annabeth. "WHAT! We've got to save her."

"Don't worry, we will. But, do either of you know how she was killed in the myth?"

"GROVER! You mean you don't know? UGH! Wait, Perseus! Perseus was the one who killed her before, just let me think." Unfortunately, the silence just let me hear Medusa again. "Who turned me into THIS. They say the eyes are windows to the soul. I hope you find my eyes attractive. So rude not looking people in the eye. Come on. Sneak a peek."

"Great. How are we supposed to fight something we can't look at?"

For once, Percy remembered the myth before me. "We can . . . look at a reflection. Let me try this out." He pulled out a cell phone and voila! There was a reflection of Medusa on the phone.

"Sooner or later, you will open those eyes. The temptation to look is too hard to resist."

"Don't look, Annabeth! Don't open your eyes!" Great, Percy. Now she knows Annabeth wasn't alone.

"Who's that? Another demigod." And now, she was after Percy. Well, at least Annabeth was safe now. "Son of Poseidon. I used to date your daddy!" She then pushed over a row of statues, trapping Percy under them. "I hear you have the Lightning Bolt! May I see it?"

"HEY, MEDUSA! Look over here!"

"What's this? Another demigod? Interesting. Wait, this one is a legacy, and a familiar one too." A legacy? What did that mean? "Ah! So that's why! I can finally have my revenge on the House of Perseus for my first death!"

"What do you mean, revenge on the House of Perseus?"

"You don't know? You are a descendant of Perseus! I vowed many years ago that I would kill a son of Perseus and crush his statue to dust for what he did!" Well, I couldn't let her do that, so I took the most difficult shot of my life. Holding the bow so it pointed at her, and using my shield to aim, I shot. Luckily, it hit right where I wanted it to, her heart. Unfortunately, it didn't do a thing. "Nice try son of Perseus, but I am a heartless monster. And it's all thanks to Athena!" Well, if she doesn't have a heart, I figured I'd try out some other places. I shot nine more arrows at her, and none of them had any effect, but hey, at least I now had ten poison arrows.

By now, she apparently had decided I was too much trouble to kill right now, and turned back to Percy. "Stay with me, Percy. All you have to do is look." But before Percy had a chance to give in to the temptation, Annabeth and Grover came charging in hitting her with a truck.

Medusa had already started looking for Percy, but apparently his cell phone caught her eye. She picked it up and . . . Percy took her head saying, "Head's up." All that was left of her were her clothes and her head.

"Annabeth, that was great, great demigod driving. But, what do we do with the head?" But Percy was way ahead of Grover. He was already rummaging through M's office, and when he returned, he had a box that looked like it would just fit the head inside. When Grover asked what he was planning to do, Percy just ignored him and stuffed the head inside. I quickly realized what he was doing and grabbed the address label, and filled it in: _Athena, Mt. Olympus, 600th floor, Empire State Building, New York, NY, With Best Wishes, Alex Summers & Percy Jackson_. "Why only Athena?"

"Why not, Percy? She was the one who got the head before, so why not now?" Apparently, none of them had a good answer to that, so they left it. Percy took a gold drachma and placed it on top of the box, and it disappeared in a puff of green smoke. While they were watching Percy, I was looking around for something that might be able to help, when I noticed Medusa's bracelet. It was a gold snake, but it had a blue sphere attached to it. When I took it out to take a better look at it, I realized that it had to be the pearl, there was no regular gem that looked anything like this. "Well, that's one pearl down, two to go. Hey, Percy, what's that egg thing in your hand?"

"Huh? Oh, you mean this?" It looked like an egg made of celestial bronze, but there was something unusual about the egg. "Oh, it's just something I found in the office. I thought it might be useful. Apparently, some guy named Ares paid for a statue with some of these." While I was examining the eggs, I heard a voice in my head say, _Take the eggs, Alex. You will need them in the future._ I'd heard the voice only on rare occasions, but every time I did, it gave advice that was extremely useful, so I took the pearls from Percy. We eventually convinced Grover to drive to the next pearl.

"Alright, if I'm going to be driving, someone's got to tell me where to go."

Percy & I both grabbed our maps and said, "The Parthenon in Nashville." Grover grumbled at that, saying it was the home of his least favourite music. Just to tease him, I started humming "I've Been Everywhere" by Johnny Cash.

* * *

_As I slept I watched myself travel to various distant places, each one just a flash of time. The Parthenon in Nashville, the Gateway Arch in St Louis, San Francisco with my twin, Las Vegas with the pale boy I was apparently destined to fall in love with, the Empire State Building with Percy, Annabeth, the pale boy and some girl I didn't recognize. Then things got a little more distant. London with a young couple, the Louvre in Paris, Luxor in Egypt, then Rome, followed quickly by Venice and Mount Olympus itself._


	6. Warm Welcome

  _I dreamed again that night. Unfortunately, it didn't help any. I was in Hades and before me was a pit that shot fire out of it. The ancient being inside was speaking to me, saying "Hmm, a little young, but more powerful than your cousin. I could certainly use you. Your father hasn't claimed you boy, but I would treat you much better, boy. Now, help me rise and strike a blow against the treacherous gods! Bring me the bolt and I shall make you even more powerful than your father!" I had only one response, "Manete infernus! Malo mori quam te iuvare!"_ When I woke up, Annabeth asked "Who's asking for your help?"

 

"Huh?"

 

 "When you were asleep you said 'I'd rather die than help you.' So, who wants your help?"

 

 "I'm not sure, I've only seen his symbol. Who uses a scythe?" For once, she didn't have an answer, or she was too scared of the answer to say. By that time, we had arrived in Nashville and were nearing the Parthenon replica. When we got in, we spotted the pearl easy, the problem would be getting to it, it was placed inside Athena's crown. Luckily, Percy had a plan.

 

 That night, we came back to the Parthenon and hid in the bathroom until it had been closed for an hour. We then headed out to the main room, but we realized we had a problem, the janitorial staff was working. Annabeth pulled out a crossbow, put in a wood bolt, and shot them. While we were getting ready to move them, I realized something  "Um, Annabeth, we've got a problem."

 

 "What kind of problem?"

 

 "Monster, what else? The janitors are monsters."

 

 "Why didn't you say something before?"

 

 "Because I couldn't smell the sulfur before! But now, UGH! The sulfur stench is the worst I've smelled! I bet that not even the Minotaur would smell this bad. Now, unless you have a way to block the smell, I'm going to get the pearl."

  
 "Wait a minute, why should you get the pearl? Luke gave me a pair of winged shoes too, you know."

 

 "Percy, your dad is Neptune, god of the sea. Jupiter is god of the air, and your dad's biggest rival, and, as if he didn't have enough reasons to hate you, he thinks you're the Lightning Thief. So, how wise do you think it would be for you to fly? Give the shoes to Grover, at least he won't be killed for flying." I flew up and tried to grab the pearl, but it was stuck, so I studied the crown. It took a few minutes, but I finally spotted an Alpha near 5 o'clock, and pushed it. The pearl popped out into my hand and I flew down to the others.

  
 But we had a problem: the janitors/monster(s) had woke up and were coming towards us. Speaking in unison, they said "We've been expecting you Mr. Jackson. Just give us the Lightning Bolt and we'll let you go." It was then that I started to be able to see through the Mist enough to see their true forms, and I did not like what I saw.

  
 "Look, I don't have the Lightning Bolt."

  
 When he said that, the middle janitor shot a ball of flame out of his mouth, and I knew what they were. "Umm, Percy. This is not the best monster to disappoint."

  
 "Alex, what are you talking about? They can't be that bad if they can disguise themselves as humans."

  
 "Annabeth, for once you not acting like yourself. In case you didn't notice, I said monster, single, not plural!" I looked to the side so I could see it clearly, and it had begun shedding it's Mist-covered skin and revealed it's true nature. "And just so I can say 'I told you so,' behold, the Lernaean Hydra!"

  
 "YIKES!" We started running for the support pillars as Annabeth shouted, "Guys watch out, the middle one spews fire!" After a few minutes of Grover and Annabeth making useless attempts to stop it, Percy started chopping off it's heads. Obviously not an Athena-inspired plan, not with the Hydra anyway. "Percy! What did you think you were doing?"

 

 "What? I killed that monster."

  
 "No, you only made it worse. For every head you cut off, two more grow back." Even as she spoke, the heads were growing back.

  
 That's when I got a brilliant idea. "Percy, the eggs! You said they came from Mars, right?"

  
 "No, I said Ares, why?"

  
 "Ares is the Greek name for Mars, the god of war!  They're not eggs, they're grenades! Throw them into the Hydra's mouths!" Percy took my advice and started tossing the grenades into the Hydra. I started counting the seconds, waiting for them to explode. four . . . five . . . six . . . seven . . . eight? "Guys, we've got a problem! They're . . ." They finally exploded 15 seconds after Percy pulled the pin, ". . . duds? What took them so long? It usually only takes six seconds for them to go off."

  
 "Who knows what goes on in Ares' mind? Let's just get out of here."

  
 "Not quite yet Annabeth. I've got something I want to do." With that, I took out ten of my arrows and dipped them in the Hydra's blood. I now had five Medusa arrows, five Hydra arrows, and five Medusa & Hydra arrows. A nice little arsenal to test on the next monster. "Alright, now we can go." Percy checked the map, revealing the location of the final pearl as The Lotus Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada.

 

* * *

 

 In St. Louis, Annabeth wanted to visit the Gateway Arch, but I stopped her. "Annabeth, we've only got a few days to get to the Underworld and find the Bolt, and we have a very limited budget we don't have the time or money to visit landmarks, no matter how interesting the architecture."  Annabeth just glared at me, but I wasn't backing down, so eventually she yielded, but she made us miss our train.

 

 We were waiting for the next train to Vegas when the TV caught our attention. We interrupt our regularly scheduled program for this special report. Scientists are baffled by what now appears to be a single storm cloud that is expanding over much of Europe and Asia, moving towards the United States. Savage winds, rain, and mammoth waves are being reported along the coastlines of several continents. So far no casualties, but countries everywhere are preparing for the worst. "The gods are angry." Just then a biker showed up. He looked like he would have made pro-wrestlers run for home. He was dressed in a red muscle shirt, black jeans, a black leather jacket, and had a huge knife or short sword strapped to his side. He wore wrap-around shades over his eyes, and had a brutal face that looked like he'd been in a large number of fights.

  
 Or at least that's what I was told. What I saw was quite different. I saw an old soldier in worn out green armor that was probably bronze, but looked useless now. His eyes had sunken deep into their sockets and his face had more scars than a leopard has spots. "Oh, come now Annie. Not all of us are angry, just some of us. Personally, I just love the idea of another war."

  
 Great, it was him. I had just met him and I already hated him as much as Athena did. "Mars."

  
 "You say that like you don't like me boy. Why?"

  
 "Let's just say that Minerva and I have something in common. We hate stupid brutality. And worthless old soldiers."

  
 "WHAT! WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?"

  
 "He didn't mean it lord Ares." Annabeth then turned and whispered to me, "Listen, you really don't want to get the gods mad at you, especially him. And no matter how much I agree with you, I can't let you insult him to his face.”

  
 “So, you’re Clarisse’s dad?” Percy asked.  “What’d you mate with to get her, a crocodile?”  Apparently, Percy hated him just as much as me.

  
 "Huh, a chip off the old block, aren't you kid. I need you to do me a favor. I took my girlfriend on a date to a waterpark in Denver, and I left my shield there. I'd like you four to get it for me."

  
 Percy seemed to like him almost as much as I did. "We're not interested. We've already got a quest."

  
 "I know all about your quest, punk. When that item was first stolen, Zeus sent his best out looking for it: Apollo, Athena, Artemis, and me, naturally. If I couldn't sniff out a weapon that powerful ..." He licked his lips, as if the very thought of the master bolt made him hungry. "Well ... if I couldn't find it, you got no hope. Nevertheless, I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt. Your dad and I go way back. After all, I'm the one who told him my suspicions about old Corpse Breath."

  
 "Really?" I asked, instantly suspicious.

  
 "Sure. Framing somebody to start a war. Oldest trick in the book. Recognized it immediately. In a way, you've got me to thank for your quest." Hmm, it sounded to me like a trick he might use. I wondered if Mars had something to do with the theft. Like he said, he should have been able to sniff out the Bolt. "Listen, just do my little job and I'll arrange for you guys to get a free ride west. I'll even tell you about your mom, cousin."

  
 "Wait, my mom?"

  
 "That got your attention. The water park is a mile west of the city on Delancy. You can't miss it. Look for the Tunnel of Love ride." After that, he just disappeared. After a bit of deliberation, we eventually decided to go after the shield, especially considering we didn't have enough money to get from St. Louis to Vegas to LA, but getting to Denver and then Vegas to LA we could almost certainly do.

 

* * *

 

 We stopped off at Denver, and we actually found the waterpark fairly easily. The others quickly grabbed some fresh, clean clothes, as theirs, well, stunk. I would've joined them, except for two things: one, I hated their clothes, and two, I still had the bag I brought with me from camp, so I still had two spare (and clean) changes of clothes. We found the shield inside the boat for the Thrill Ride o' Love, and I breathed a sigh of relief. "Alex, what's wrong?"

  
 "Hmm? Nothing's wrong, I'm just relieved that the park is dry. I've always been a little afraid of being in the water or underground.  Besides, there’s something off about the cupids . . . I can sense there’s something different about them." The ride actually looked like it had been dry for a long time, but I stayed out just in case, while watching the cupids. Percy and Annabeth had just gotten the shield, when the cupid statues turned, and aimed at them; then their heads flipped back and revealed cameras. Over the loudspeaker, we could hear a voice saying, "Live to Olympus in one minute. . ."

  
 That's when Annabeth and I realized it was a trap by Vulcan, meant for Mars and Venus, that was why Mars didn't want to come here himself! They were really in trouble now, but then I heard Annabeth scream "AHH! SP-SP-SPIDERS!" Spiders? OH, that's right, Arachne! I was desperate to help them, and that's when I felt a tug in my chest, nearly identical to the one Percy described when he used his hydrokinetic abilities. "Thirty . . . twenty-nine . . ." As I watched, a wind picked up, inside the ride, and blew away the spiders, smashing them into the walls. After the spiders were gone, the wind died, and Percy filled the cavern with water. "Fifteen . . . fourteen. . ." The boat floated down the river towards a closed gate, and at the last second, Percy and Annabeth jumped out of the boat and safely into the pool below, with a little help from a waterspout I made.

  
 Then, just before getting off the waterspout, Percy stood up and bowed to the cupids, saying "Show's over!  Thank you, and good night." I had to laugh at that. Only Percy would do such a thing!

  
 "Thanks for getting rid of the spiders, Percy," Annabeth stated once he stepped down.

  
 "Umm, you're welcome, but that wasn't me."

  
 "It was me Annabeth. Apparently I can control air as easily as Percy controls water." We eventually found Mars at a road-side diner, and he was actually disappointed; apparently we'd made it out just before the cameras started rolling. He took his shield and pointed us towards "our ride," an animal transport truck, then tossed us a backpack with clothes, money, and some Oreo's. But I could have sworn that there was something else in there, something powerful. Mars then told Percy that his mom was a captive, and still alive, then he left. With nothing better to do, and the truck drivers heading out, we got into the truck and I promptly fell asleep on top of the lion cage.


	7. The Lotus Casino and Crusty's

 We quickly realized that the "Humane Zoo Transport" was actually being used to smuggle animals. During the trip, Grover finally told Percy about what he did with my sister, and when she stated that no one blamed him, I said "I blame him." They turned to me in shock while I explained. "Grover was sent specifically to bring Thalia to camp. Yet when the time came to choose between saving Thalia and saving himself, he saved himself." I then turned to Grover. "I will not forgive you for that, until the day you help bring her back. If you don't, or she doesn't come back, then you will never earn that forgiveness." It wasn't very Christian of me, but she was my sister.

 

When we finally reached Vegas, we set the animals loose, with the zebra actually bowing to Percy. Luckily, we ended up right where we were supposed to be: the Lotus Hotel & Casino, but something was wrong. I couldn't put my finger on why, I just knew that it was dangerous.  When I voiced my suspicions, Percy just scoffed. "Ah, you're getting paranoid, O son of the wind. Besides, don't you think that G-man would smell something if it was dangerous? Come on, we need to get the pearl." Sure, Percy. And Grover didn't smell anything at Auntie Em's or the Parthenon either.

 

 In fact, Grover seemed to want to stay in the Lotus for a while and have some fun, fortunately I could count on Annabeth and Percy to stay focused on the Quest. Unfortunately, the place was huge, and I'd been smelling something that was making me dizzier by the second. The scent got stronger and stronger, so strong that it was close to literally splitting my head, until, "Try a Lotus Flower, they're so good. It's our signature dish." They all grabbed a flower and Percy handed me one, which just made me dizzier. We all took a bite, and I immediately collapsed. "WOW. Guys, why don't we stay here for a while?" Annabeth said.

 

 "That sounds like an amazing idea. But we're on a time-sensitive mission right now. Aren't we? And I know him, don't I?" I remember Percy shocking me with that, but what Annabeth said next shocked me into complete and utter blackness. "I think I figured it out, I think I know why we're here. To have fun!" The last thing I heard was Percy saying, "Okay! Let's never leave! Let's stay here!" And then I knew nothing.

* * *

 I fought against the blackness for so long, time lost all meaning. For all I knew, the War could have started and ended already, decades, centuries could have passed, and I wouldn't have known. So many times I almost broke the surface to consciousness, but failed. Finally, I heard the voice saying, _Alex, my son, wake up. You've been unconscious for four days. You only have 30 hours to stop the War. Wake up, or you'll be forced to fight Perseus. Neptune is even now preparing to wake his son, so WAKE_! Well with that for incentive, how could I not obey? I finally broke free of the blackness, only to hear the most unusual thing when I did. "OHH, Hades is going to kill us when he finds out we kidnapped his nephews for nothing! They don't even have the Bolt or Helm!" The voice that spoke sounded like he whined and panicked a lot.

 

 "You mean _IF_ he finds out!"

 

 "What do you mean _if_? Of course he's going to . . . _If_ , if is good." _No way. No way in Tartarus_ could it _really_ be them, but those lines, said like that, how could it be anyone but them?

 

 "I don't believe it. Pain and Panic? You're real? I thought Disney made you up." And wouldn't you know it, Disney actually got their appearance right too, complete with tiny wings and barbed tails.

 

 "Well of course we're real, Walt was a demigod, son of Hecate. But, listen. Could you not tell Hades about this? We'd get into a lot of trouble if you did." Sometimes it was really difficult to tell which was Pain, and which was Panic by the way they acted.

 

 "Tell you what, I won't even tell Percy about this, if you tell me where they are and let us go."

 

 "WHAT? Let you go? But we can't do that. We're not supposed to let anybody leave without Hades express permission."

 

 " **LISTEN**! Either you let us go, or I will tell Hades about you! **UNDERSTAND**?" They broke immediately. I was able to find Percy soon after that, and Dad was right, Neptune had woken him up. We split up to find the others.

 

I noticed something odd about this casino though, even beyond the fact that two Disney characters were running it and the Lotus scent (which I had apparently become used to in the time I was unconscious.) I could have sworn that I smelled the scent of death and the grave in here, and it _definitely_ wasn’t coming from Pain and Panic. Boy, was I shocked when I ran into one of the sources of the smell, literally.  “Sorry about that, I’m in a bit of a . . . hurry,” I said, but that was before I saw _him_. 

  
 It was the pale boy from my dreams.  He was my height and about my age. Tousled black hair like silk, pale olive skin, and eyes the colour of liquid silver. Despite being only twelve, that was a recipe for an instant crush, even without the dreams. "It's no problem," he replied.  “Hey, my name’s Nico di Angelo, what’s yours?”

  
 “Umm . . . Alex, Alex Summers.  Why are you here?"

  
 “You know, I don’t remember.  Last thing I remember is that my sister and I were dropped off here by some lawyer.  Hey, how'd you like to play this new card game I found?  It's called Mythomagic, it's really easy to learn, yet really fun to play!"

  
 Oh, how I wanted to!  If only I could have joined him to play and enjoyed the time spent with my crush, but I couldn't.  "Nico, I really, really wish I could, but I can't.  I’ve got to get from here to Los Angeles then back to New York in about 30 hours.  But I promise this, I’ll get myself some cards, learn how to play, then when we meet again, we can play a game, okay?”

  
 “And how do you know we will meet again?”

  
 “Because I still believe in destiny, Nico, and I believe that we are meant to be.  I promise, we will meet again.”  With that, I gave him a quick kiss and ran off to find Percy.

  
 I eventually found Grover, surrounded by a dozen beautiful girls. Percy and Annabeth met up with us there, and that's when Grover made the most surprising statement of his life. "Guys, your timing is terrible. Dude, we're heading to the chapel. We're getting married!"

  
 "Oh, how romantic!"

  
 "Annabeth, I thought you were Minerva's daughter, not Venus'!" And believe me, she sounded like anyone _but_ Minerva. Naturally, when Grover asked which one he'd proposed to, all of them raised their hand. "Percy, I think we need to get drastic with them." So I dragged them away, grabbed a cue stick and hit both of them on the head. "Come on, grab Annabeth and let's go!" We picked them up and ran for the door, with casino security chasing us the whole way; luckily there was a Maserati waiting at the door for us. I opened the doors and threw Annabeth and Grover inside. When Percy leaned in to check on them, I yelled at him, "Leave them lying, unless you plan on using them to hit somebody with." We then jumped in the car and drove off, glad to leave the Lotus Casino behind us.

  
 "So, what happened in there, and do you know how long we've got?"

  
 "Well, I got a headache, and when I ate some of the flower, I blacked out. When I woke up, I was able to barter our way free. And it's the lair of the Lotus-eaters from The Odyssey. Odysseus landed there, and when some of his men ate the Lotus flower, they wanted to stay. And we apparently have about 30 hours before Jupiter declares war on your dad."

  
 "Whoa, hold on. What do you mean, you bartered our way out?"

  
 "Well, Pluto owns the place, and two of his minions didn't want us to tell Pluto that they, quote ‘kidnapped his nephews for nothing.’”

  
 "Wait a minute, nephews?"

  
 "Yeah, us. So I guess that tells us who my dad is. Jupiter, who would have though it?" We didn't talk much for the rest of the trip, but I realized we still had Mars’ backpack, and I was sure we didn't have it when we left the casino.

  
 We finally stopped to rest at a motel, just south of Hollywood. When we woke up, we were down to 19 hours and 23 minutes before doomsday, Annabeth and Grover had woken up from their trances, and the Maserati had been stolen. We walked in the direction of our goal, the Hollywood sign, but along the way, we were surrounded by a gang of boys that looked like they would fit right in at Yancey Academy.

  
 Percy attempted to scare them off with Anaklusmos, but it just passed through them, so we ran into a store that Grover identified as Crusty's Water Bed Palace. Inside we met Crusty, a giant that looked like he'd been in the Lotus Casino for about 30 years. Soon, ole Crusty had Grover, Annabeth and I strapped to a bed, he was actually Procrustes from the travels of Theseus. And naturally he was still up to his old tricks, making visitors fit in his 6 ft beds. And while we were being stretched, Percy was actually praising Crusty's work! When I looked at Annabeth, it was obvious that she didn't understand what Percy was doing either. Then, when all reason seemed lost, Percy actually tricked Procrustes onto one of his beds and cut his head off. Just as soon as our ropes were cut, he insisted we keep going. Grover immediately complained, "Give us a minute. We were almost stretched to death!"

  
 "Then you're ready for the Underworld" Percy said. "It's only a few blocks away." Sure enough, the Hollywood sign was just outside the window.

  
 We found the entrance to the Underworld easily enough; there was some "graffiti" in Ancient Greek that Percy translated as _Woe to all depraved souls_ , that was obviously the door. When we got closer, the hillside fell away, revealing a small passage. Once we were all in, the hill fell back to cover the entrance. We found an extremely thin man in an expensive Italian suit at a desk surrounded by souls. He demanded to know why we were there, and was pleasantly surprised when we said we _wanted_ to go to the Underworld. But he was immediately suspicious when he realized Percy couldn't read his name tag.  He soon realized we were demigods, but Percy was able to bribe him to let us go. When we got to Charon, it was a little more difficult. Grover quickly realized that he wanted paid, and tried to pay him with modern money. Charon just took it and burned it up. "That was $170. He burned $170 in the middle of a recession?"

  
 "Grover, don't you remember anything about your history. You need to pay the boatman in _coins_. Now, does anybody know how many were usually paid?" None did, so I just gave him nine drachmas, three for each of us.

  
 "The living are not allowed here. Die and come back."

  
 "Well, we're not going to 'die and come back,' so how about a few more?" I eventually tripled the payment, and Charon finally relented and let us on the boat.


	8. Chapter VII: Retrieval

 The trip to the Underworld was depressing to say the least. The Styx was filled with unrealized dreams and unfulfilled potential. And everything around us was cold and black. When we neared the Judgment Pavilion, Charon said "Old Three-Face is hungry. Bad luck for any still living, twice as bad for you godlings." Normally, he would probably have been right, but now, under these circumstances, I doubted him. At the pavilion, there were two lines, one moving faster than the others. Annabeth explained that the faster line went straight to the Asphodel Fields, while the other line was for those who wished to be judged. And yet, that wasn't all I saw; in the distance, I could see an island in the middle of the Styx, with an Egyptian temple that seemed to be transparent. Inside I could see a human figure with the head of a canine animal, and a pair of broken scales, barely holding together. When I turned to ask Annabeth about the island, I could tell she couldn't even see the island.

  
 When we got close to Cerberus, Percy tried playing with him, but I could see that wasn't working. So I tried my own approach, by pulling out my violin and playing _River Flows in You_. And just as in the myth of Orpheus and Euridice, Cerberus fell asleep, he actually looked quite cute then. Once she got over her shock, Annabeth then took us on a guided tour of the underworld, when Luke's winged shoes turned on, and carried me and Grover towards a pit. I was able to regain control of them fairly quickly, but Grover kept hurtling towards the pit. So I flew towards him, grabbed his hands, and started fighting the shoes. Suddenly, I got an idea, "Grover, let go of my right hand! I'm going to try something!" When he let go, I grabbed my pen and hit the third button I'd had hidden under the clip. When it activated, I stabbed it into the ground, and luckily, it stopped us. Unfortunately, it wrenched my arm so bad, I thought I'd dislocated it. Fortunately it bought us enough time for Percy and Annabeth to catch up to us and get Grover's shoes off of him. The shoes kicked our heads, and then flew into the pit. The air suddenly became cold, and I could hear the ancient voice yelling _NO!_ "What was that? One of Hades pets?"

  
  _You wish, Grover._ I now knew what was in there, but I wanted to relieve the tension, not increase it to the breaking point. "Well, _that_ was close."

  
 "Yeah, but how were you able to control them?" Smart Annabeth, always asks the right questions.

 "Well, they work in the air, so thanks to dad, I have complete mastery over them."

 "That's all good, but what are you doing with a _trident_? That's my weapon, not yours! Yours would be a _lightning bolt_ if you could wield it." (After we'd learned about my heritage, Percy had IM'd Chiron and asked if anybody could use the bolt. Apparently, dad had made it so only a demigod with his blessing could wield it, and he'd _never_ given anybody his blessing, not even Hercules or Perseus.)

 "Look, can we argue about territory later? If you're that upset, I can have Jake and Charlie remove it when we get back. But for now, we've got work to do." Annabeth was clearly in shock about what Percy had said, but reminding her of our job got her back on track.

 Hades' palace was impressive to say the least. If you think Persephone's garden was tempting to Percy, it was doubly tempting for me. I had to say, if Persephone was as tempted by the fruit as I was, then I was surprised my sister lasted as long as she did before giving in to Hades. But the palace itself was amazing, it was made entirely of obsidian, with jewels every six inches and torches every two feet. It wasn't until we were nearly at the throne room that I noticed something. "Percy, is the backpack heavier?"

 "Yeah, why?"

 "Remember how I told you that I could almost sense something in there, like it's there, and yet not there? Well, I can sense it a lot better now, like it's finally here. And believe me, whatever it is, it's extremely powerful." When we walked into the throne room, the first thing I noticed was the pale man from my dreams, sitting on the throne, welcoming us by saying "Nephews. Welcome."

 _"It's you!"_ I cried out in shock.

 "You seem surprised, nephew. Why?"

 "Oh, nothing Uncle. Seeing you just cleared up a big mystery." Of course, I didn't know for sure, but I knew this conversation would confirm my suspicions.

 When he turned to Percy, it was obvious that this could be very dangerous for him. "You are brave to come here, Son of Poseidon. Especially after what you've done to me. Brave, or simply foolish." I have to say, Hades was probably right about the latter, considering Percy was crazy enough to ask Hades to prevent the war by giving him the Bolt. It wasn't until Hades accused him of doing something a second time that he was smart enough to ask, "Um ... Uncle, you keep saying 'after what you've done.' What exactly have I done?"

 "Do you think I _want_ war, godling?"

 "You are the Lord of the Dead. A war would expand your kingdom, right?"

 I decided to but in before Hades got mad at him and killed us. "Percy, were you paying attention when we passed the Asphodel Fields? Do you really think the Underworld needs expanding?"

 " _Thank you!_ Finally, someone who understands me! I used to be a rich god! I control all the wealth under the earth. But my expenses!"

 Then Percy did something more foolish than asking Hades to stop the war. "Psychopompus wants a raise."

"Don't get me started on Psychopompus! He's been impossible since he discovered Italian suits! Problems everywhere, and I've got to handle all of them personally. The commute time alone from the palace to the gates is enough to drive me insane! And the dead just keep arriving. _No_ , godling. I need no help getting subjects! I did not ask for this war."

 "So, you have your own reason to go to war? Maybe someone stole something from you too?"

 "Yes, but how did you know? Unless _you_ were the thief, Son of Jupiter. Maybe because you thought I stole your father's weapon?"

 Ok, why does everyone call me the son of Jupiter? "Actually, at the time, neither Percy nor I knew about our heritage. It wasn't until Alecto attacked Percy that we even suspected you might be real. As for how I knew, I've been having dreams."

 "Then give me my Helm of Darkness."

 "But I don't have the Helm. I came for the Bolt."

 "Which you already possess! Did you think you could threaten me with it so I wouldn't attack your father? Or maybe to get your mother back?" Percy was confused and opened the backpack. Boy, was he shocked when he saw the Lightning Bolt inside. We each reached for it, but the others were shocked when they got too close to it. When I reached for it, however, it flew to my hand and I immediately knew that I could use it for any purpose I wanted. I could even give in to The Voice and attack Olympus if I wanted. But, as I had told everyone since I'd determined to follow Percy, I was loyal to friends and family. No matter how much The Voice tempted, I would never give in to it's demands.

 "My demand remains, **_GIVE ME MY HELM!_** Or you'll never leave the Underworld!"

 "Percy, use the pearls and get out of here!"

 "But what about you?"

 "I'll just fly, now GO!" Percy and the others did as I asked. "I'm sorry, Uncle, but we still have work to do," I said before shooting Hades with the Bolt, and then his zombie soldiers if they got in my way. As I flew out, I passed by Tartarus I noticed something I'd missed when I was being pulled towards it: another hole, but this one was covered with a stone and had seven seals over it. And one of the seals had been broken. Curious, I'd have to look into that later. When I passed by Cerberus, all he did was whine and put his tail between his legs.

When I got to the surface, I'd expected Percy and the others to be waiting for me, but I found them at the Santa Monica Pier. And wouldn't you know it, Ares was there too. And to my shock, Percy was actually battling Ares! Just as I got there, Ares blasted away the cop cars saying "This is a private matter. Be gone!"

"Private, eh Mars? Then I suppose that I'm not supposed to do THIS!" I yelled. I then shot him with the Master Bolt, knocking him on his back. He got up just in time for Percy to hit him with a six-foot wall of water, and Percy slashed his heel. Mars was so furious that the sea blasted away, leaving a fifty-foot circle of wet sand, with ichor flowing out of the wound. Mars looked like he was about to blast us to nothing, when _it_ happened.

Light, sound and colour faded to almost nothing. A cold, heavy presence passed over the beach. As it passed, time slowed, the temperature dropped, and a sense of doom and gloom settled on us. Then just as suddenly as it came, it was gone. Mars lowered his sword and turned towards us saying, "You have made an enemy godlings. Perseus Jackson, you have sealed your fate. Every time you raise your blade in battle, every time you hope for success, you will feel my curse. Alexander Summers, I had given you a blessing before your birth, that blessing is now your curse. Beware!" Annabeth then yelled to us saying not to look, but I watched. As I watched, I saw the mist burn away and Ares started glowing, and then vanished.

After handing Alecto the Helm of Darkness, Percy mentioned that there was only one way to get to Olympus before the deadline, flight. Annabeth stared at him "Fly, like, in an airplane, which you were warned never to do lest Zeus strike you out of the sky, _and_ carrying a weapon that has more destructive power than a nuclear bomb?"

"Well with me going with you, what's the problem? I mean, Dad's not going to blast me out of the sky, especially considering we've got the Bolt." Annabeth conceded that, and we headed to LAX.


	9. Olympus

 We were mobbed before we could get to the airport. Apparently, Percy had been a fugitive before the fight with Mars, and since then was cleared as a kidnapping victim, along with his three friends. (What? I didn't pay attention to the news much at the time.) When Percy gave his interview, well, it was completely unbelievable. "All I want is to see my loving stepfather again. Every time I saw him on TV, calling me a delinquent punk, I knew ... somehow ... we would be okay." Like I said, unbelievable, especially to me and Grover. We just stood to the side in shock, until he finished his statement. "And I know he'll want to reward each and every person in this beautiful city of Los Angeles with a free major appliance from his store. Here's the phone number." When he said that, all three of us just burst out laughing.

When we were getting on the plane, Percy confronted me about the Trident I had in the pen. "When we you going to tell me about it? And why do you even have it? You obviously knew that Poseidon wasn't your father, so why carry it?"

I'd already thought of an answer, so I said, "Well, I thought one of us could use it if we got into a fight like you did with Mars. With a trident, you could easily break a sword if necessary. And as I said earlier, you insist, I think I could convince Charlie and Jake to separate the trident and give it to you." Percy turned it down saying that Anaklusmos was good enough for him, and he actually gave me permission to keep it. I still decided to remove it and place it in his cabin when we got back to camp.  I highly doubted that we were the only children of the Big Three that were out there right now.

Before going to Olympus, we had Annabeth and Grover head back to Camp Half-Blood (just in case Zeus decided to zap us anyway.) We had only fifteen minutes left by the time we reached the Empire State Building. When we got to the front desk, Percy asked to go to the 600th floor. The guard eventually turned to us and actually claimed there was no such floor. "We need an audience with my father, Jupiter."

"Sorry?"

"You heard Alex."

"No appointment, no audience, kiddos. Lord Zeus doesn't see anyone unannounced, not even his own kids."

I was getting annoyed by this point. "Oh, I think he'll make an exception for us." I opened my hand, where I held the Bolt, in a miniature form.

The guard looked at the little bolt for a few seconds, obviously not believing what it was. Then his face went pale, and he stuttered, "That's not . . ."

"Yes it is. You want Alex to just leave it here with you then?"

" ** _NO! NO!_** " He scrambled out of his seat, pulled out a security key and handed it to us. "Here! Insert this into the keyhole marked 'Staff Inspection' then hit Omega! That will take you to Olympus!" We did as he said, and by the time we reached Olympus, one, I was ready to destroy the elevator speakers; and two, we were down to five minutes to get to the throne room. Looking at Olympus, I wasn't sure we'd be able to get there in time. It was literally a mountaintop covered with a city built in the style of Ancient Greece, with what was obviously the throne room at the peak. Oddly, no one seemed to be worried about the impending war, in fact, they seemed to think that it was a time to celebrate (I would later learn that that's the way Olympus always was, no matter what was happening.) We got there just as my father said "Time has run out."

We weren't prepared for what greeted us though. In front of us were twelve giant thrones and an equally large fireplace. Around the fireplace, there were four giants, each at least 40 feet tall. One I recognized immediately as Vesta, although she seemed quite different from when I met her last month at Camp Half-Blood. With the other three, I could have sworn that we were looking in a mirror that aged us twenty years, at least it would have seemed that way if Annabeth were there. The woman was by far the most beautiful I'd ever seen, and she seemed to be a mirror image of Annabeth, except the woman had black hair. One of them had blonde hair (the same shade as mine) and a full beard and sky-blue eyes, the other had black hair, a slightly thinner beard and sea-green eyes that were identical to Percy's. We bowed to our fathers and Percy greeted Neptune. Jupiter was not happy about that; "Should you not address the master of this house first, boy?"

"Peace, brother. The boy defers to his father. That is only right."

"You still claim him then? You claim this child whom you sired against our sacred oath?" Father asked.

"Hypocrite. Your own son is standing there too. I thought you had agreed to my advice sixty years ago.  You play a very dangerous game with him, Father."

"You're wise as always, Athena, but I know what I am doing. Now, give me the Bolt, Lightning Thief." When I tossed the Bolt to my father, he was surprised to say the least, but he still thought Percy was the thief. "You were wise to betray your father."

"Percy didn't steal it, father. I was with him the whole day on the winter solstice, and we weren't even in New York City that day. In fact, we didn't even know that you existed until about four months ago."

"If he didn't steal it, then who did?"

"We don't know." Percy and I then proceeded to tell our parents and Minerva all that had happened over the past four months. When they started to talk about whether Mars would have done such a thing, we interrupted and explained our idea, telling them about our dreams and experiences in the Underworld. They had a quick discussion, and even with my gifted hearing, I only caught one word, _Father_. "I believe that this assembly's business is finished. Perseus, if you ever attempt to fly again, I will turn this on you. But in any case, well done, both of you. And Alex, when you return to the camp, I shall claim you as my son."

"Thank you father, but no."

"No? Why not?"

"I want you to wait until the final day of the summer camp. I don't want to come off as power-hungry to the other campers. Besides, this is Percy's summer, let them honor him on this years' bead. I'm content knowing that YOU are proud of me."

"Very well, so be it. I shall claim you on the final night then, right after the toast." After that, I headed down to the ground floor, and back home to Camp Half-Blood, while Percy stayed and talked to his father.


	10. End of the Beginning

 Before we actually went to Camp Half-Blood, Percy had us stop at his home. When we arrived, we were greeted by Mrs. Jackson, who immediately took Percy into a bone-crushing hug. Apparently Hades had released her that morning, with no memory of the past month. When we finally entered their apartment, I realized that Gabe could actually be worse then The Mess: garbage was ankle deep in places, the couches were buried under a mountain of beer cans, and Gabe and his friends were doing nothing to make the place look better, only playing poker at the dining room table. Gabe verbally attacked Percy and even threatened to hit Mrs. Jackson; I was so furious that I was about to attack him, until I realized I didn't know how to fight anymore! I tried thinking about attacking him with multiple weapons, but all I knew how to use were the javelin and bow. I immediately realized what had happened; it was because of Mars that I instinctively knew how to fight so well and now, all that knowledge was gone. I realized that I couldn't help at all, so I told Percy that I would stop by my home, and meet him at camp.

 

When I arrived at my house, I received a big shock. Somebody else was living there. Apparently The Mess had died of a drug overdose more than a month ago and the city had sold it. So I turned on the shoes and flew back to the only home I had left. When we arrived, everybody treated us like conquering heroes: they crowned us with laurel wreaths and had a huge feast to celebrate our return and Grover was rewarded with the searcher's license that he'd been coveting and he finally received his horns-apparently ever since the death of Faunus, old Bacchus had been in charge of the fauns and only granted them their horns after they completed one job or another. After the feast, we burned the burial shrouds they'd made for us in case we didn't return. Annabeth's shroud was amazing—gray silk with embroidered owls. Percy's was made by Ares, so I wasn't surprised when they revealed it: an old bed sheet that had smiley faces with X'ed out eyes for a border and 'LOSER' painted in the middle. My cabin mates from Hermes had taken a purple satin sheet, stitched question marks for a border, and in the center, put a picture of my dead body surrounded by a few piles of sulfur, with 'Nygma' at the top.

 

 One week later, Percy got a letter from his mom that he shared with me. Apparently, she had used Medusa's head on Gabe and sold him to an art museum in Soho, and was using the money to start school, get a new apartment and she put down some money for Percy and me to go to a private school next year. When I read that, I was moved to tears. I'd never had anyone take care of me like that other than my mom. Whenever I wasn't busy with other things, I was thinking about whether or not to take her up on her offer. Luke on the other hand had been acting quite odd since I left. Oh, we would still chat, (even if he said nothing about the kiss he gave me!) but there was something . . . off about the way he'd been acting.

  
 In the meantime, I talked to Chiron and found out I had three would-be step-siblings in the Athena cabin. Doc had had three kids with Athena: Sarah-15 years old, Joseph-14, and Grace- also 14. We soon became friends and I learned that Doc was still in love with my mom, but didn't want to put any of us in jeopardy because of our combined scent. Professionally, he was trying to prove that Theseus and Perseus were real people and he occasionally brought them along to his digs. I kept up my training with Luke, but I found out that Mars had left me with a learning disability when it came to weapons; it took me twice as long to learn anything when compared to the average camper, so naturally I trained twice as hard. In the meantime, I finally had a chance to translate Phobe's prophecy from two of it's original languages to English.  As one of the languages was Latin and the other Greek, I asked Sarah for help, and together we managed to translate it.

  
_Seven seals bind he who shall end the gods_  
_Delphi shall cause worry_  
_And four will stand empty_  
_The Oracle, the Rich One shall bind_  
_To one body she will be confined_  
_Any who take on the spirit be warned_  
_Madness shall befall any who take on Delphi's curse_  
_Three shall work an ideal_   
_That which shall bring great ones to heel_   
_The first seal broken: A symbol of power stolen_  
_Two half-bloods of the eldest gods_  
_Shall reach sixteen against all odds_  
_One of the sea and the east, accused of theft_  
_One of the air and the west, of mortal parents bereft_   
_The first claimed as a final gambit_  
_The second, on the final night_   
_United from birth_  
_The truth they shall unearth_  
_The second seal broken:_  
_Betrayal by a friend_  
_The third seal broken:_  
_The guardian tree poisoned_  
_The Daughters of War lose their home_   
_But gain new ones in the West_   
_One a Queen among Women,_   
_The other, a leader of the West_   
_The great General shall be freed_  
_The betrayer carries his burden_  
_The fourth seal broken:_  
_A virgin huntress shall bear the sky_  
_But beware mighty Titan,_   
_A Gorgon shall imprison you forever_   
_The Children of the West and of Sky,_   
_Children of Destiny shall unite_   
_The Crooked One shall rise once more_  
_And among the minor gods increase his rapport_  
_The fifth seal broken:_  
_The Labyrinth invaded_  
_A rejected son shall seek solace_  
_And ally himself with the prisoner who is formless_  
_The sixth seal broken:_  
_The Crooked One lives again_

  
 Then there was a line we couldn't translate.  Gods, who could I turn to that knew how to translate Egyptian hieroglyphs?!

  
_Cetus strikes the West_   
_While Kampe strikes the East_  
_The Son of the Air and the West rises to Rule_   
_Eldest son of wisdom, shall finally fall to death_  
_And destroy the great maze with his final breath_  
_Eleven more lines of hieroglyphs, gods, why was there so many hieroglyphs?_  
_They shall see the world in endless sleep_  
_The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap_  
_A single choice shall end his days_  
_Olympus to preserve or raze_  
_In the West, Othrys fall to the Children of the West_   
_The Southern Stars falls to the Child of Lightning,_   
_If Olympus shall be maintained,_  
_The minor gods shall have gained_  
_Respect and cabins shall Balance win_  
_All through the sacrifice of a son_  
_But watch the West for the Giant’s rise_

  
 And now eight more lines of hieroglyphs!  Everything after that seemed obscured, but who knew why.

 

 I couldn't believe it, but this prophecy seemed centered on me and Percy. Two half-bloods of the eldest gods: one born of the sea (Neptune), accused of theft (the Lightning Bolt) and claimed as a final gambit (to save Neptune from an unwanted war); the other born of the air (Jupiter), with no mortal parents (Mom died just outside camp, and she never married) and claimed on a final night. But I was worried about what it said about the second seal: betrayal by a friend, that sounded suspiciously similar to the second-to-last line of Percy's prophecy at the beginning of the quest.

  
 The final night finally came, and they unveiled the bead for this year, a black bead with a sea-green trident, which according to Luke "commemorates the first Son of the Sea God at this camp, and the quest he undertook into the darkest part of the Underworld to stop a war!" There was a quick toast to that, and Luke left after that. Just after he left, everyone gasped and stared at me. I couldn't understand why until Annabeth pointed above my head. When I looked up, I saw a lightning bolt, Dad had finally claimed me. Chiron shouted, "It is determined! King of Olympus, Ruler over the Air, Wielder of the Lightning Bolt. Hail, Alexander Summers, Son of Zeus!"

  
 I sneaked away as soon as possible, and returned to the Mercury cabin to gather my things. I was surprised to see Luke doing the same.  "Hey, I thought you were a year-rounder, Luke, why are you packing?"

  
 Luke jumped at the sound of my voice, but calmed when he saw me.  "Hey Alex, what are you doing here?"

  
 "Oh, I was just claimed, so I need to move.  What about you?"

  
 He gave me one of those odd looks he'd been giving me all month before saying "I'm leaving, Alex, and I'm not coming back."  The look I gave him must have revealed my confusion as he explained. “I’ve long since lost any trust I felt in our parents, Alex, and year after year I’ve seen how they abandon us, sometimes not even claiming us as theirs!  Things need to change, Alex, and I’m joining the only being who could change things.”

 

 There was only one being that I could think of: “Saturn.”

  
 Luke laughed.  “One of these days you are going to tell me why you prefer the Latin names, Nygma. But yes, he has spoken to me of a world without the gods, a new Golden Age for humanity, an end to the Mist and hiding from mortals.  We would finally get the recognition we deserve for protecting them from monsters! Join us, Alex, and there’s no telling what we could accomplish.”

  
 “Us?” I asked.  “How many have joined you, Luke?”

  
 “Here?  Oh, a few dozen, most of them undetermined. Others are children of the minor gods, none of whom are as powerful as you. If Thalia were still alive, I know she’d join us, so why don’t you join us in her name?”

  
 For a second, I was tempted, but I knew mortals all too well. It could never work, unless Saturn managed to force the military and scientists to leave us alone and keep the fearful mortals in line-and that would mean he would be a tyrant, far from welcome, and humanity would work to overthrow him. “Sorry Luke, but no, I can’t join you. Before you leave though, I need to know: why did you kiss me?”

  
 Luke sighed. “Too bad, Alex, we could have really used you. Kronos foresaw you becoming our most powerful ally if you agreed, and he suggested that I flirt with you to try and get you to join us.  Sorry, but I never liked you in that way. It’s rare for us, but I am completely straight. Chris, go ahead.” I had just enough time to wonder what he meant by that when I felt something hard hit me in the back of my head, and I collapsed into darkness.

* * *

 I was woken the next day by a tug in my stomach, something I'd only felt once before, during the winter solstice. I had a terrible feeling I knew what it was, and started searching for Percy. I found him deep in the forest, near the creek with an empty Coke can in the creek and a dead scorpion nearby. I dragged him into the creek and shouted for Chiron.

  
 Percy awoke the next day and told us what had happened, all of which I already knew. " _The second seal broken: Betrayal by a friend_ ," I quoted. "It's part of a prophecy, and apparently that _cunnus_ Luke's fulfilled it!" Chiron gasped at my language, but I didn't care what he thought. That _ciis ineptes_ had fallen for Saturn's promises and betrayed us! Right then, my former love for him turned to hatred and I vowed never to fall in love again. Not even Nico would be able to touch my heart again, to Tartarus with my visions! Later, Percy, Annabeth and I made plans for the next summer: we would go out and hunt down Luke, with or without permission. I told Percy that I had finally decided to stay at camp for the year, but to tell his mom thanks. I would see what this place had to offer for the year-rounders, and maybe I'd go see the man who would have been my step-father, Dr. Chris Egan, son of Apollo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The lines underlined in my prophecy are in Latin, the obscured part at the end refers to Heroes of Olympus … and any potential future in this series, which will continue on into AT LEAST Trials of Apollo. Ciis ineptas is Latin for traitorous fool, and due to the undetermined nature of my audience, cunnus will remain untranslated, but it is a TERRIBLE insult, especially for those of the male gender.


End file.
